John H. Antes grew up in Canton, Ohio, and soloed at the age of 16. After graduating college he was commissioned in the U.S. Navy and received his naval aviator's wings in June 1960. Flying mostly the WF-2 Tracer (affectionately nicknamed the "Willy Fudd"), he cruised to the Western Pacific aboard USS Lexington (CVA-16) and twice aboard USS Ranger (CVA-61). While serving with VAW-11, he qualified as a Centurion with 114 carrier landings aboard USS Ranger. He was honorably discharged as a lieutenant in December 1963 and began medical school, but never overcame the lure of flying and returned to the air with TWA in 1967. After 29 years as an airline pilot, mostly in Boeing 727s and McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, he retired as a captain in 1996. He accrued about 27,000 flying hours in his career and logged many more hours of charitable work in the Boston area after retiring. John H. Antes died in April 2019 at the age of 83.