- November 25, 2024
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You can fly.
Four decades ago, flying meant getting in the cockpit of a B-52 bomber for retired Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Delzingaro. For his 85th birthday on Sunday, Oct. 20, flying meant being on the other end of a plane, 15,000 feet in the air, and jumping.
Skydiving was a breeze for the Ormond-by-the-Sea resident, even while free-falling at 120 mph.
“It seemed like floating," Delzingaro said. "I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to glide toward Miami and just up the coast. I wanted to stay up there for hours — like Peter Pan almost, flying over the state of Florida.”
He had been wanting to skydive for about a decade. His personal trainer Nathan Henwood jumps several times a month, and when the opportunity arose, Delzingaro seized it. After all, his family was also going to be in town for his birthday. It seemed like the perfect occasion.
While Delzingaro wasn't nervous about his jump with Skydive DeLand, his wife Donna definitely was. But, she said her husband was going to do it anyway even if she told him not to. So she decided to be excited for him.
“Would I do it myself? No, no and no," said Donna Delzingaro with a laugh. "But for him, I was happy for him, because I felt like he’s living his life to the fullest. He’s living his dream and I’m just happy to be along for the ride.”
The Delzingaros have been married for 20 years. They met at a church function.
“We were married six months to the day we met," Donna Delzingaro said. "We just knew.”
Before his 85th birthday, Frank Delzingaro had only jumped from one airplane. It was 1963, just a couple years before the Vietnam War officially started. But there's no comparison between a military jump and skydiving, he said.
For one, military jumps happen at 1,200-1,500 feet.
Delzingaro, who is originally from Pennsylvania, served a total of 26 years in the Air Force. He was 11 years old when he decided he was going to be a pilot.
It was 1945 and World War II had ended. Parades would often pass by his Philadelphia suburb, and he was sitting on the front steps of his house with his brother when one in particular came by. He remembers seeing a WWII pilot sitting in the back of a red convertible during the parade.
“I said to my brother, ‘ One day, I’m going to do that,’” Delzingaro recalls.
And he did. Until at 43 years old, he had a heart attack and was retired medically.
You'd be hard-pressed to find someone prouder of Delzingaro than his wife. Donna Delzingaro said his life has been "amazing" and that everyone who meets him recognizes he is an extraordinary man.
When he landed back on the ground, seeing his family waiting for him was one of the best parts of skydiving, Frank Delzingaro said. He could see they were relieved.
“They were all cheering and yelling," he said. "The old man didn’t kill himself. It was great.”
