(KCEN) -- A World War II era plane is now back with its original owner.
When Duncan Cameron started restoring a relic he had no idea flight logs would lead him to a pilot.
Mert P Hansen is one of the only surviving men who flew planes like the OY-1 over Iwo Jima.
But Mert's thrill ride on a plane like his last summer was nothing compared to the news Duncan had just found Mert's actual plane.
But it wasn't pretty and Mert wasn't getting any younger.
"I says, well, I'll give you three years to get it finished so I can fly it," Hansen says.
Cameron says, "I gotta, I gotta, I gotta get this done. I don't have a choice. I have a responsibility."
Thousands of hours later he did it.
Now 91-year-old Mert touched the very metal he'd flown in so many hostile missions.
"I couldn't figure out why I was the only one left to see it."
The Tennessee pilot who meticulously restored Mert's plane, right down to her war era band aids did all this for a humble Iowa veteran.
"Who would ever fix something up that you mashed up 70 years ago?" says Hansen.
A hero who'd smile through one gentle turn then well up with emotion at the next when he realized the only thing better than experiencing this moment with his gal is experiencing it with his wife.
