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