Flight Training Columbus

The Dash Between: Dan Brattoli 'born to fly'

At the onset of World War II, Dan Brattoli drove from Elyria to Wright Patterson Field in Dayton to enlist in the Army Air Forces and become a pilot, but the quota for airmen was full.

Rejected and dejected, Dan still joined the AAF, training as an amphibious engineer who could operate a landing craft. But he never abandoned his airborne dreams and he applied to flight school.

“I think Dan was born to fly,” his brother, John, said. “He was making model airplanes back before the war when he was younger.”

The dates of birth and death that appear like bookends on a tombstone do not matter as much as the dash between those dates.

Award-winning writer Alana Baranick has made her living writing about the dash between. She’s focusing on Lorain and Medina counties and those who have made our area the unique and interesting place it is. Look for her stories on alternating Sundays and visit www.chroniclet.com to find additional photographs.

Before he could be deployed overseas, Dan was accepted to flight school. And before the war ended, he had flown 138 missions over enemy territory in     P-40, P-47 and P-51 fighter aircraft and had been awarded  the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Daniel A. Brattoli, who died May 4, 2011, at age 89, was born Sept. 6, 1921, in New Lexington, southeast of Columbus in Perry County, where he grew up with his 10 siblings.

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“It was a struggle for my parents because it was during the Depression years,” his brother, John, said. “My dad had a job at the tile plant where they made clay tile for roofs and bathrooms. He also worked a second job in construction. My mom, naturally, she was canning. We had our own garden.”

They had so many kids, they put the dinner table in the cellar to accommodate all of them at one time.

Dan’s brother, Tony, remembers the model planes his brother carved out of wood.

“The flaps worked through a lever inside,” Tony said. “The tail turned like a regular plane when you moved the joystick inside the cab. He was really infatuated with flying then. I think we all were.”

Dan played football at New Lexington High School. He liked to point out that one of his opponents on the field was John Glenn, future test pilot, astronaut and Ohio senator.

After graduating in 1939, Dan traveled to Elyria with other New Lexington men to find work. At first, he worked at Isaly’s Dairy Store and Bender Body. Then he landed a job at General Industries, where he met fellow employee Veronica Puhaly, who became his wife.

GTR Airport opens runway extension | Starkville Daily News

Mike Hainsey, executive director of GTR airport, said the project increased both the airport’s safety and capacity. The 1,500-foot runway extension, which also includes 1,000 extra feet of safety area, increases the runway’s length to 8,000 feet, Hainsey said. The runway now meets the minimum requirements for CAFB’s T-38 planes, he said, and it also allows current commercial planes to carry their full capacity safely during the summer. The event was originally planned to feature Doug Murphy, southern region administrator with the Federal Aviation Administration, but his flight from Atlanta to GTR was canceled due to inclement weather. In Murphy’s stead, FAA Southern Region Program Manager David Shumate read a message from Murphy which said the extension put GTRA among the best airports in the FAA’s southern region.

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