FLIGHT: Today we continue the story, submitted by Dike Artley, of his bus driver’s friendly offer to take him flying.
“My parents drove me to the Harri Emery Field, which is now part of the Pitt-Bradford Campus, where to my amazement sat his beautiful Stinson Model 108 Voyager taildragger, with its tube and tan fabric-covered fuselage.
Within minutes, there I was, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat as we made the takeoff roll down the 2040’ hard soil northeast/southwest runway. This 14-year-old’s heart was truly beating a mile a minute.
We climbed skyward over Bradford, banking to the left and then right, to give me a bird’s eye view of the downtown topography, and then we shadowed the road to Derrick City where we circled over my home at 330 Derrick Road.
What a thrill that was for me, and a memory that still lingers at the ripe old age of 80!
Upon our return to Emery Field, I knew right then and there that my destiny was to be in the field of aviation. And it was, for after college, I entered the Air Force — received my silver wings and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. I then spent countless hours flying to every corner of the world, including numerous combat missions in Vietnam.
After my military career, my love of aviation continued with Trans World Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines — all of the above inspired by the thoughtfulness and generosity of my school bus driver.
But there is more to this story…
Allow me to borrow Paul Harvey’s famous words as he closed his regular daily radio show: ‘And now you know the rest of my story.’ For the readers of this story should know that my bus driver and everlasting friend, Richard ‘Dick’ Miller, was also a respected Bradford City Patrolman.
Every day as I boarded his yellow school bus, he would greet me with a ‘Hello Dike, grab a seat behind me and let’s talk about your day…’
As the years passed and I would occasionally return home to visit family and friends, I would often have a cup of coffee with Dick at the Congress Street Diner, where we would discuss our lives’ happenings, as good friends do.”
