POCATELLO — A man who grew up in Shelley and graduated from high school there was the co-pilot of a World War II B-17 bomber that flew into Pocatello Regional Airport on Monday as part of the Airbase Arizona Flying Museum’s Flying Legends of Victory Tour that is taking place at the airport through July 25.

Brent Beck, 41, said he grew up reading about the B-17 Flying Fortress and its role in World War II.

“As a kid I always thought it was a neat airplane,” he said.

In fact, there was a library in Idaho Falls that had a video he watched of this very plane, named the Sentimental Journey, flying around.

“And I always thought it was really cool and that’s what started it for me,” he said.

That sparked his long involvement in aviation of all kinds, including extremely high flights.

His mother, Joyce Beck, 69, of Shelley, said she had previously wondered what motivated him to fly the B-17, but then she visited with people at the site and listened to how much it means to them to see it.

“It’s a wonderful thing that they can share this with the world to show the price that was paid,” she said.

Dozens of people attended the landing of the B-17 at the airport and visited with the pilots.

Beck says it’s interesting and rewarding to fly the B-17.

“It’s a really neat thing because there’s three people up front,” he said. “There’s the pilot, the co-pilot and the flight engineer.”

So the working relationship between all three is really important, he says.

And it’s also fun to learn about what people did over the course of their flying careers.

Everybody involved with the plane has a unique background, according to Brent Beck.

“They come from all over the U.S.,” he said.

For instance, one of the people they work with was a test driver for race cars.

And they’re all really great people, according to Beck.

“That’s what makes it really important and a lot of fun,” he said.

Beck himself was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 2004 and advanced to the rank of major in the military.

He did several deployments out of the Little Rock Air Force Base.

And he flew the U-2 high altitude aircraft for about five years before he left the military in 2015.

He now works for aerospace company Lockheed Martin.

And he got into the program with the Airbase Arizona Commemorative Air Force when he just dropped by one time to Mesa, Arizona, to chat with the people there.

He says the all-volunteer effort is an important way to show what the airplane did during World War II.

Also, the generation that flew the B-17 is passing, so keeping the aircraft flying is a way to preserve that legacy and to introduce that to their families, he said.

Beck says a lot of times people will come by and mention that their grandpa or uncle or cousin flew in the B-17 during World War II.

“So that connection with the past for them and having it be a tangible thing they can see and touch and smell and to experience what they went through is really important,” Brent Beck said.

In addition, the Airbase Arizona Commemorative Air Force is one of the few organizations that offer Living History Rides in the B-17.

Flights in the aircraft are scheduled for not this week, but next week on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Prices range from $95 to $850 for flights. Entire planes can also be exclusively purchased for groups or families.

Ground tours are available now through Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and July 22 to 25 from 2 to 6 p.m. Admission is $10 per person or $20 for a family of four. Tickets can be purchased at the gate.

For more information on the flights and tours of the plane, visit www.azcaf.org, call 480-462-2992 or go to flyinglegendstour.com.