Ethan Hoffman is YARS Pilot For A Day

VIENNA

Ethan Hoffman, 12, of Howland, today became the 910th Airlift Wing’s 62nd Pilot for a Day in a ceremony at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.

“Is this like in the movies,” Ethan, son of Daniel and Lilia Hoffman of Howland, asked when he saw the Marine Corps Humvee that took him on a tour of the Air Reserve Station before he was sworn in as an honorary Air Force second lieutenant.

Fitted with an official Air Force uniform, Ethan, a student at Howland Middle School, is being treated for Bartter syndrome, an incurable kidney disorder, at Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley in Boardman. The Pilot for a Day program provides children with chronic, life-threatening conditions a day of fun activities at YARS, including riding in the cockpit of a C-130H air plane as it taxies on the runway.