WWII Veteran Goes Skydiving For his 95th Birthday

Look forward a few years to your 95^th birthday; what do you think you want to do to celebrate? Most of us just hope we are still here and able to care for ourselves at that point, and we aren’t worried about how we will celebrate another year of our lives (waking up seems to be a good enough celebration for most at that age). But that’s not how 95-year-old Col. Hal Shook viewed things. The retired WWII veteran from Raeford, North Carolina decided he wanted to celebrate his birthday this year a bit differently. No cake and ice cream or party hats for him. No, he decided to do something a bit more fun, like jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

The former military man took his celebration to whole new heights jumping over Hoke County, North Carolina from 12,000 feet in the air. He wasn’t nervous because he is no stranger to being in the air. He flew on D-Day and was reportedly shot down by enemy fire at one point. He’s been in the air, and then on the ground in many cases, and he’s not letting a little thing like age get in the way of his desire to celebrate his birthday the way he sees fit. His jump was flawless, and his friends and family from all over the country came in North Carolina to watch him as he took on his birthday challenge, all proud of him and his lifelong accomplishments.

The birthday boy described his successful jump as beautiful being able to sit up there in the sky and see everything below him before jumping. He did not say whether or not this is his last jump or if he has any plans to jump again, but we bet he hasn’t seen his last plane.

Photo by John Medina/Getty Images for T-Mobile