MINNESOTA, USA — Life has a funny way of putting people in your path when you least expect it. For Evan Fagen, that started with a search for inspiration.
"You never know, you know, where it's going to go," Fagen said. "Looking for paint schemes, and did some random internet searches and found Don McPherson's paint scheme that he flew with in World War Two."
That search led them to McPherson, a WWII veteran living in Nebraska. Fagen asked him for permission to paint their rebuilt Grummann F2F Hellcat, starting their friendship.
"Never thought in a million years that, you know, several years later, we'd have this great friend in Don," Fagen said.
That friendship led them to this past Friday. Fagen is the chief pilot at the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum in Granite Falls, who's hosted McPherson several times to talk about his time in the war.
Fagen has been trying to get the 102-year-old McPherson up to the museum again to fly in another WWII-era plane, and Friday was that day.
"I hadn't been in a World War Two airplane until yesterday," McPherson said.
It's been decades since Ensign Don McPherson flew a Hellcat during the war, but even at 102, his memory of that time is sharp.
"The first of March of '45 until the first of September," McPherson said of his time in the Pacific theater.
Photos and videos of McPherson's time in the sky show him riding with the canopy open, thumbs up in excitement.
"Brought back some really, really cool memories," he said. "You know, what had happened in the past."
McPherson spoke to a large crowd at the museum, including a school field trip. Fagen says kids sat front row, listening as McPherson passed along his story and history.