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Every year the Collier County Veterans lead ceremonies on Memorial Day. Two of its dedicated volunteers are Jessica Stearns and her J-3 Piper Cub. ....
Stearns often flew a C141 Starlifter, the polar opposite of the tiny two-seater she owns now. Massive, four-engine jets with swept overhead wings, they looked like spaniels of the sky. But they were workhorses for the U.S. presence in Vietnam, carrying as much 35.5 tons of freight or around 80 litters for wounded troopers. It was one of Stearns duties, as an aerovac (aeromedical evacuation) pilot, to ferry seriously wounded troops to hospitals in Japan or the Philippines. Occasionally the plane was shot at, and Stearns remembers narrow escapes: The guardian angels were with me, she said. Sometimes the Starlifter s load was silent, filled with coffins. ....