Lessen the chance that you outlive your

Dr. Jonathan Daniels reflects on how his father, a World War II veteran, helped shape his service

Local student wins people’s choice award at state entrepreneurship challenge, Skyline team in top 20

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

Growing up, Dr. Jonathan Daniels aspired to be an aviator like his father and his grandfather before him. Dr. Daniels became a navigator, devoting 13 years of service flying in the backseat

of the F-4 Phantom II as a navigator/weapons systems officer. He served another 13 years in the U.S. Air Force as a physician, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

“My dad has always been my hero,” said Dr. Daniels, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Rocky Mountain Women’s Health and a member of the medical staff at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center.

His “hero,” Courtney Daniels, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, celebrated his 100 th birthday earlier this year. He spent a storied career as an aviator, flying B-17 bombers in World War II, as well as hundreds of missions piloting the B-29 bomber, the B-50 bomber, and the C-130. He also flew the C-47, supplying the city of Berlin, Germany with food, fuel, and medical supplies during the Berlin Airlift, which commenced on June 26, 1948.

“I always wanted to fly,” said Courtney Daniels, who grew up on a farm in Mount Emmons.

“When Japan dropped their bomb on Pearl Harbor, the next day I went down to the federal building and signed up for flying cadet school.”

Mr. Daniels was a 21-year-old college junior in 1941. He was dispatched to England in 1944 aboard the B-17, “Maid Marian”- named after his wife. He was assigned to the 8 th Air Force, 34 th Bomb Group, flying 25 combat missions out of Mendelsham Airfield, including 18 as the lead crew. Missions entailed bombing German railroads, oil fields, and airfields. On at least one mission, his Bomb Group led the entire 8 th Air Force. One of his close friends, Gale Halverson, also of Utah, gained fame during the Berlin Airlift as “The Candyman” for flying missions that dropped chocolate candy bars to children, a practice Daniels and his crew also adopted. He went on to serve in the Korean War and Vietnam, completing his military career at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., retiring in 1968. He then went into carpentry and home-building.

“I’m a happy 100-year-old man,” he said. Page 10 | July 2020

Like his father, Dr. Daniels also volunteered to serve. He was in the Air Force ROTC at the University of Utah in the mid-1970s and signed up for Vietnam even though he had a high draft

number that would have spared his service. He served with the Air Force in Florida, as well as Hill Air Force Base in Utah., and in North Carolina. Following his seven-year commitment to the Air Force, he continued in the Air Force Reserve and was accepted to medical school at the University of Texas. With a demanding internship requiring 80-100 hours a week, he retired from flying and continued to serve as an Air Force physician.

“I wanted to fly, and I got to do that,” said Dr. Daniels. “When I got to the end of my initial commitment with the Air Force, I decided I wanted to do something to help people. When you’re in the military in a combat crew, your job is to kill people. I was trained to do that. I was trained to drop nuclear bombs.”

Despite that rigorous training, he wanted to do something different. “I really appreciate the ability to be able to help people and save lives,” Dr. Daniels said. “It’s a real privilege.”

Dr. Daniels has served more than 20 years as a physician, delivering more than 4,000 babies throughout his career. In July, he will wind down his time with Steward Medical Group. He will continue to do call coverage with Steward Health Care and also work in Elko, Nevada to provide greater access to OB/GYN care to residents within that 100,000-population community.

Several years ago, Dr. Daniels experienced a nagging desire to return to the skies and since then has obtained his private pilot’s license and is currently working on his instrument rating license. One of his first flights as a private pilot was to take his father back up in the air, flying him around Salt Lake City. He recalled that when his father gave a talk at a Veterans’ hospital several years ago, he told several stories.

“He didn’t focus on the war and the good bombing he did. He focused on the Berlin Airlift, the good things that helped people,” Dr. Daniels said. “Sometimes we have to fight wars, but we should also do good, and help people as much as we can.”

Murray High junior Liberty McBride created “Pocket Change” app, which won the people’s choice award of the 2020 High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Jorgensen/FLASH Jorgensen Photography)

Junior Liberty McBride plays volleyball and softball at Murray High and will be senior class president in the fall.

Liberty also wants to make money in school, but she said that is hard to do with her afterschool activities. Yet, that hasn’t stopped her from finding a way.

Using skills from her personal finance and business management classes and lessons from her dad, who is self-employed, she created Pocket Change, an app that enables students to investigate educational and career options, acquire professional skills and enter the workforce in their career to gain a little “pocket change.”

“The main purpose is to provide jobs and paid internships so students can work with actual people in the field and decide if the career is something that they’d like to pursue,” Liberty said, adding that this way, high school students may be able to hold a job that has flexible hours around their schedules. “I showed my teacher and she thought it was great.”

Liberty then entered her app in the 2020 High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, coordinated by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, a division of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah.

Pocket Change advanced from the 350 entries from more than 40 state high schools to the top 20, then won the people’s choice award with 969 out of 3,757 total online votes.

While the full competition was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the top 20 teams were able to showcase their ideas online and allow the public to vote on their favorite teams.

“I talked to my friends and teachers and they thought it was a great idea. I just talked to as many people as I could to share the idea. On the website, it showed that it had 16,000 views,” she said.

Liberty was awarded $1,000—a little more than “pocket change.”

She’s already decided to invest her winnings into taking her app to make it a reality and hopes to work with app developers to do so.

“I think every high school kid wants to make money for activities and dances and gas, but we also have limited time with high school activities—and we want to do something that will help us in our careers. It also is an avenue for employers who are looking for someone interested in entering their field,” she said.

While she is disappointed that she couldn’t present the idea in front of a panel of judges since the in-person portion of the contest was canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she appreciated the chance to share her idea.

“This is what I want to do, go into business and help people. I want this to grow and provide people with jobs. It’s really exciting to see other people who thought the idea is great,” she said, adding that she’d like to take Murray High’s new entrepreneurship and business marketing classes. “I read the other ideas in the top 20 and there really are some cool ideas.”

Skyline High’s “Optimized Lawn Care,” which received 303 votes, aimed to help easily maintain your lawn while using less water and spending less money by actively measuring lawn soil and automatically creating an optimized sprinkler schedule.

Other area students from high schools High’s “TagTeam” with 192 votes; Hillcrest High’s “Pocket Gardens” with 135 votes; AMES’ “The Circle of Life” with 26 votes; AMES “EcoFashion” with 21 votes; and Waterford’s “Epicure” with 14 votes. l