SAN DIEGO
On Monday, World War II bomber pilot Gerald “Jerry” Solheid of San Diego marked his 103rd birthday with his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Family members who gathered to visit Solheid at Nazareth House in Mission Valley were grateful for the arrival of the vaccine. But if anyone could get by without the much-anticipated shot, it might be Solheid. In December, he survived a bout with COVID-19; in 2009, he beat lymphoma; and in 1944, he escaped four B-24 bomber crash landings with little more than a scratch.
“He’s a very religious man, so we have always said he has an angel on his shoulder,” daughter-in-law Susan Solheid said on Monday.
By PAM KRAGEN | The San Diego Union-Tribune | Published: January 27, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. SAN DIEGO (Tribune News Service) On Monday, World War II bomber pilot Gerald Jerry Solheid of San Diego marked his 103rd birthday with his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Family members who gathered to visit Solheid at Nazareth House in Mission Valley were grateful for the arrival of the vaccine. But if anyone could get by without the much-anticipated shot, it might be Solheid. In December, he survived a bout with COVID-19; in 2009, he beat lymphoma; and in 1944, he escaped four B-24 bomber crash landings with little more than a scratch.