Still flying at 97: Autobiography recounts WWII pilot's life

In World War II John Billings flew more than 50 combat missions, including missions for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the CIA

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- If he's not airborne, there's a good chance you will find 97-year-old John Billings at his home airport in Luray, Virginia. A recent heart attack prevents him, for now, from piloting solo, but he still routinely flies his Cessna four-seater when a co-pilot can join him. A lifetime of flying, going back to his days as a 21-year-old bomber pilot in Italy and then flying secret missions with the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the CIA, is recounted in “Special Duties Pilot,” an autobiography scheduled for release next month by Pen and Sword Books. “It was just something that somehow just got burnt into me as a little child,” he said of his love of flying. On his third birthday his dad took him for an airplane ride at a local airfield in Hingham, Massachusetts. “In reality it only lasted maybe 15 or 20 minutes, but to a 3-year-old, it felt like the whole afternoon and it burned a hole in me, and that was it.” So in June 1942, when Billings enlisted in the Army as an 18-year-old, he asked if he could enroll in aviation training. Not only did he have an active interest, he also readily admitted that he wanted to avoid an infantry unit; he'd heard what infantry combat was like and didn't think he had the stomach for it.