Voices of Arizona is a special segment where KJZZ spotlights everyday Arizonans who help make our state an extraordinary place to live.
In a Flagstaff retirement community one veteran sits with his wife and stepdaughter as the smell of BBQ wafts, and the sounds of music blare from the DJ booth. It’s his birthday, and as the oldest resident at The Bluffs of Flagstaff, they threw him a party. The sign hanging over the DJ’s tent reads: “104 never looked so good.”
“My name’s Oliver Cole, former U.S. Airforce, U.S. Army Airforce pilot during World War Two and subsequently until 1970," Cole said.
He grew up on a ranch in northeastern Montana off the Missouri River.
“I would see these airplanes flying back fairly often. I was five years old and that is when [Lindbergh] flew across the Atlantic," Cole said. "And I told my Mother as one was flying over, I told her that I was going to do that some day, and she of course was a bit skeptical.”
Since then he’s flown more than 50 missions. In his life he’s been a pilot, a ranch hand, a Boeing employee, an engineer, and a meteorologist. He also flew bombers during the Korean War and later worked for the government until retirement, where he met his wife in a Lake Havasu hiking club.
And his thoughts about living to see 104:
“My motto is Que Sera Sera ‘whatever will be will be.’ That’s the way I look at it. Truthfully,” Cole said.
He doesn’t miss the flying. Cole lives with his wife at The Bluffs, now closer to his stepdaughter and grandson, who, on Cole's birthday, graduated the 5th grade.
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