The Aviators

Some men live to fly, and Captain John Wilkinson was one of them. His wife Marie tells a story from early in their relationship when Johnny, as his friends knew him, was a young South African Air Force pilot learning to fly the Hercules cargo plane. ‘I love you,’ he told Marie, knowing that what he said next would hurt her, ‘but you have to remember that flying will always be my first love.’ Thirty years later they were still together, and had two daughters and a son, Hilton. Johnny was still flying the Hercules, but in Angola, in a war zone a long way from home.