World War II veteran goes skydiving for his 95th birthday

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Monday, October 16, 2017
Veteran goes skydiving for his 95th birthday
Norwood Thomas, a World War II paratrooper who landed in Normandy on D-Day, went skydiving two days after his 95th birthday.

Norwood Thomas celebrated his 95th birthday by skydiving, but he's no stranger to jumping out of planes: He's done it three times in the past seven years.



He was also a World War II paratrooper who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Thomas, who is the oldest person to skydive at Skydive Suffolk in Virginia, decided in 2011 he would put it on his bucket list to jump out of a plane again.



"I gotta keep active, I gotta keep doing things," Thomas told the Virginia Pilot of this weekend's jump.



Thomas' son, Steve, said his father's had his share of health battles recently that have kept him from jumping as much as he'd like. Thomas had prostate cancer, which is now in remission, and he's had Type 2 diabetes and stage 4 kidney disease.



But Thomas, whose birthday was on Friday, plans to keep jumping as long as he can. Sunday's jump was from 14,000 feet with a tandem instructor.



"It's a thrill like always. We did a complete tumble, I enjoyed that," he said. "I was enjoying the scenery. When you're up there looking down on the world, it's a beautiful scenery. It's a feeling you don't get unless you get up there."

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