| Jim Tuorila's most memorable hot air balloon flight | | | | concentration camps. |
| comes with a small bit of irony attached to one | | | | While doing his doctoral internship at the Topeka, |
| of its more prominent elements, altitude. The | | | | Kansas, VA Medical Center, Tuorila and his wife |
| veteran balloon pilot and co-founder of Freedom | | | | volunteered to crew for a hot air balloon. When |
| Flight, Inc., a non-profit organization that raises | | | | he went to work in Minnesota, they saw a balloon |
| awareness as well as hot air balloons, had flown | | | | in flight one day and decided to volunteer again. |
| hundreds of times. But when one of his | | | | In 1987, he appeared on a local TV program to |
| passengers requested that he take his distinctive | | | | talk about the emotional difficulties families face |
| black balloon with the easily recognizable POW | | | | when a loved one returns after years of captivity. |
| MIA logo to 5,000 feet, Tuorila acquiesced with | | | | On the program he met the daughter of a Navy |
| little enthusiasm. | | | | pilot shot down and declared MIA. The daughter |
| "I don't like to fly high," he said, laughing. "I'm afraid | | | | told him that the government story of her |
| of heights. I can't lean over the side of a tall | | | | father's disappearance was very much at odds |
| building and feel comfortable. I probably wouldn't | | | | with the story told by her father's wingman, who |
| be flying this balloon if it weren't for the issue." | | | | made a point of finding the pilot's family to tell |
| But the POW/MIA issue and the balloon are | | | | them the true story of the incident. |
| inseparable. The striking black craft with its three | | | | By then, Tuorila and his wife were crewing on a |
| 30-foot high POW/MIA logos is like no other and | | | | balloon flown by a Vietnam veteran who had |
| is easily spotted even in a sky like Albuquerque's | | | | been encouraging him to set up a non-profit with |
| in October, when mass ascensions at the | | | | an eye toward calling attention to the POW/MIA |
| Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta | | | | issue. |
| might number more than a thousand colorful | | | | Then one day at work, his professional life and his |
| balloons in all shapes and sizes gliding over the city. | | | | weekend life coalesced. |
| Tuorila's three guests that day came with special | | | | "I told my co-therapist, 'You know, I've been |
| significance. So he opened up the balloon's gas | | | | flying and working with balloons for five years |
| burners and the black craft rose into the air. His | | | | now. What about a black POW/MIA balloon? What |
| passengers were women married to men still | | | | kind of attention would that get?' " |
| listed as MIA from the Vietnam War. He doesn't | | | | The co-therapist and co-founder of Freedom |
| remember which one asked that he fly to 5,000 | | | | Flight, Vietnam veteran Bill Nohner, thought it was |
| feet, but Tuorila has been a psychologist at a VA | | | | a great idea. A year later, Freedom Flight, Inc., |
| Medical Center in Minnesota for 20 years; he was | | | | obtained status as a non-profit educational |
| curious to see what would happen when they | | | | organization. |
| reached that altitude. Balloon flights generally skim | | | | In 1989, the first flight went up. Its first |
| the earth, the better to see and be seen. At | | | | passenger was Henry Sha, a World War II |
| 5,000 feet, people on the ground are barely able | | | | veteran and ex-POW who happened to stop his |
| to see the balloon. He couldn't imagine why his | | | | car when the balloon landed nearby. Invited |
| passenger wanted to climb that high. | | | | onboard, he didn't hesitate. |
| He said that the moment they reached the | | | | Now in its sixteenth year, Freedom Flight |
| requested altitude will stay with him forever. | | | | continues to attract attention, sometimes through |
| "We get up there and she says this is the altitude | | | | a little luck. At the 2005 Albuquerque International |
| the military said her husband was at when he | | | | Balloon Fiesta, Tuorila volunteered to give rides to |
| ejected from his plane over Vietnam," he said. | | | | the media. A Voice of America camera crew |
| "She wanted to see what the world looked like | | | | making a documentary on the balloon fiesta |
| when he ejected. It touched me so deeply that I'll | | | | accepted his offer. When the crew members |
| never forget that flight with those women." | | | | found out who they were flying with, a new angle |
| Freedom Flight, the POW/MIA Hot Air Balloon | | | | for the documentary emerged. |
| Team, has flown in more than seven hundred | | | | "When they found out what we were doing with |
| events since its first flight in November 1989. The | | | | the balloon, I think the program changed to include |
| non-profit now has three balloons that attend 35 | | | | Freedom Flight and everything we were doing," |
| to 45 events a year, staffed entirely by | | | | Tuorila said. |
| volunteers. The organization grew out of Tuorila's | | | | The change was in keeping with how Tuorila |
| vocation, psychology, and his avocation,hot air | | | | describes the past sixteen years. "The reception |
| balloons. | | | | we've gotten over the years make the hair on |
| In 1981, while attending graduate school at Texas | | | | the back of my neck stand up," Tuorila said. "It's |
| Tech University in Lubbock, he worked with a | | | | been incredible. I've had what I assume to be a |
| group of World War II ex-POWs called the "Lost | | | | Vietnam veteran come up, put $100 in my |
| Battalion," all of them survivors of more than | | | | pocket and say, 'Keep it up,' then walk away. I've |
| three years in Japanese prison camps. That work | | | | had family members of the missing come up to |
| inspired Tuorila to write his doctoral dissertation on | | | | me with tears in their eyes. I've had ex-POWs |
| the effects of captivity, especially regarding the | | | | come up and thank us. Everywhere we go, the |
| work of Victor Frankl and his famous writings | | | | reception has been positive and overwhelming, |
| following his own imprisonment in Nazi | | | | and that keeps us flying. |