AFB pilot walks in father’s steps

COLUMBUS AFB, Miss. -- Air Force 2nd Lt. Jon Koritz was among the undergraduate pilots graduating from Class 13-13 on Aug. 16, and walking the stage, at Columbus (Miss.) Air Force Base. But it seemed a bit more special to Koritz. It was the same staging area in which his pilot-physician father Maj. Tom Koritz walked years before. "To walk across this stage … my father walked across, with class 82-01 to receive his wings, is a very special moment for me and my family," Koritz said. His father's was killed when his F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down on the second night of combat in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Source: Columbus AFB, Aug. 23, 2013.