People & Personalities

Air Force veteran Warren Weinstein enjoys Monday mornings at the West Hills Wendy’s fast food restaurant where, for more than a decade, a group of about 75 Southern California veterans calling themselves Wings Over Wendy’s has been meeting to swap war stories and camaraderie. “I’m in awe of some of these gentlemen,” Weinstein says. “They’re in their 90’s, and being a pilot, particularly a B-17 and B-29 pilot, I was talking to some of these men who were on the actual missions over Germany, Ploiesti, the oil fields of Romania, some of the famous raids of WWII. These men have stories to tell.” Westlake Village resident 85-year-old Weinstein was a rescue pilot in the service from 1950-1953 and had his own adventures. His 10-member crew was in charge of going to crash sites to determine if there were survivors. If so, with a para-rescue jump team, they would get them flown safely to a hospital. On a good day, he was able to save lives at a crash. On one of his adventures in the jungles of Brazil, although there were no survivors, Weinstein recalls recovering $2 million dollars in diamonds on a crashed flight. Weinstein says no one will…