"Until earlier this month, U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Melvin Rector had always regretted not having returned to the place where he served during World War II. This year, the 94-year-old Barefoot Bay man who served as a radio operator on B-17 Flying Fortress bombers decided to return to a country he last saw in 1945: England. It was such a milestone that the pilot of his American Airlines flight to England invited Rector to the cockpit and snapped pictures with the veteran. "The flight attendant stopped us and said, 'Mr. Rector, the captain would like to meet you.'" said Susan Jowers, who accompanied Rector on the trip. On May 6 he arrived in London for a tour of World War II sights and the places he had served 71 years earlier. Rector was scheduled to visit his former base RAF Snetterton Heath in Norfolk, but started the tour at the Battle of Britain Bunker in the Uxbridge area of London that first day. "He walked out of that bunker like his tour was done," said Jowers, 60, who first met Rector when she served as his guardian during a 2011 Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. She said she became like a daughter to Rector after that. As he walked out, Rector told Jowers that he felt dizzy. Jowers took hold of one of Rector's arms while a stranger grasped the other. Rector died quietly there just outside the bunker. Jowers said she expected three or four people for the simple funeral service in London. That was until others found out about it." http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2016/05/24/wwii-vet-died-his-final-mission-london/84618100/
