Frederick Octogenarian Takes Flight, Rekindles Love for Aviation

June 2, 2021

Jun. 2—Eighty-nine-year-old Merle Harrison still remembers the years she spent working as an aircraft riveter in Wichita, Kansas, to put herself through college. It was hard, physical work, but she found it exciting.

Her love for aviation continued to the U.S. Navy, where she served for six years and held the rank of lieutenant junior grade — a higher rank than her late husband Bruce, according to her daughter Kathy Loftin.

To this day, Harrison loves to recount the flights she took in little two-seater planes in her youth. That love for flight is why her daughter brought them to the Frederick Municipal Airport Tuesday.

"I remember flying out of naval airports and being able to go up in the plane and go wherever I wanted to go," Harrison recalled. She said she flew over the ocean and to states such as Colorado and California.

This week, Harrison took to the skies again but this time over Frederick County. She moved to Frederick about five years ago to be closer to Loftin, who resides in the Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, area.

Aboard a Cessna 172, Harrison joined Bravo Flight Training owner and instructor Brenda Tibbs in the cockpit for a flight lesson. Harrison's aide, Lolo Mowoe, and Loftin took the two remaining seats in the rear.

Harrison reached her hands forward and clutched the yoke, facing an array of buttons, knobs, meters and dials. She seemed at home.

Tibbs ran through the safety protocols before hopping in beside her co-pilot. With a dual control system, Tibbs can ensure the passengers are safe while her students steer the aircraft.

"What a great experience for her," Tibbs said, "She wouldn't normally be able to do this."

With the doors shut, the propeller began to whir. Lights on the tips of the wings flashed. The plane taxied down the runway and faded into the distance behind a bend in the landscape before reappearing and taking off into the blue sky. It flew west toward Brunswick and Harpers Ferry.

About 30 minutes later, they landed safely back at the Frederick Municipal Airport.

"She did most of the flying," Tibbs said of her co-pilot. "I just took off and landed."

"It was great," Harrison said afterward, smiling, still sitting in the cockpit.

On deck to help Harrison in and out of the plane was Bravo maintenance mechanic Robert E. McCaleb III. Wearing a dark green jumpsuit and a United States Marine Corps ball cap, McCaleb knelt down by the plane's wheel to face Harrison, who uses a wheelchair.

"Thank you for your service ma'am," McCaleb told her. "I wouldn't have been able to serve if it weren't for you."

He stuck out his hand, and she grasped it. McCaleb is retired from the Marine Corps, and he heard the woman taking a lesson that day served in the Navy. He pointed out the Marine Corps is a department of the Navy, so he has a connection to Harrison.

"She's my sister," McCaleb said.

Follow Mary Grace Keller on Twitter: @MaryGraceKeller

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U.S. Air Force photo by Giancarlo Casem