"I'm going to be one of them one day," he said.

Nearly 70 years later, Morakon will be honored for a career that included plenty of time in the sky.

The retired command sergeant major, who spent 25 years testing parachutes and aircraft as a civilian at Fort Bragg, will be inducted into the U.S. Army Operational Testers' Hall of Fame next month.

From his home in west Fayetteville, Morakon said the honor came as a surprise.

"You're crazy," he said he told officials when notified of the honor.

But officials with the U.S. Army Operational Test Command at Fort Hood, Texas, said they are proud to honor Morakon. He conducted more than 50 tests on airborne equipment and procedures for the organization before he retired in 2009 at the age of 78.

"He embodies the spirit of the profession of arms and deserves the highest tribute we can give a tester," said Brig. Gen. Scott Spellmon, Operational Test Command commanding general, in a news release.

In all, Morakon spent 55 years serving his country, including two stints as a soldier and his career as a civilian tester.

Much of that career was spent at Fort Bragg, where Morakon served with the 82nd Airborne Division and Army Special Forces. When he retired from the Army in 1980, he was command sergeant major of what was then called the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Center for Military Assistance.

Looking back, Morakon, who turns 83 next month, said the Army is the only career that didn't bore him.

As a young boy, Morakon said he originally wanted to enlist at the age of 16. But his mother, a Ukrainian immigrant with nine children, urged him to instead finish high school.

Morakon fulfilled that promise, then joined the Army in June 1949.

When the young soldier jumped from his first plane at Fort Benning, Georgia, later that year, it was his first time on an airplane.

He stayed at that post as cadre at the airborne school before deploying to Korea with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team as a squad leader.

In 1952, Morakon returned from war as a staff sergeant and was honorably discharged.

He spent about a year moving from job to job, but Morakon said nothing kept his interest.

He and a friend worked at an automobile plant in Buffalo, New York; another car factory in Bristol, Pennsylvania; a steel mill in Bethlehem; and a coal mine in his hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Eventually, he decided to re-enlist in the Army, joining as a private.

Staff photo by Andrew Craft   Peter Morakon

"From then, I knew I was going to retire from the Army," Morakon said.

The soldier quickly rose through the ranks yet again, serving with the 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 503rd Airborne Infantry Battle Group and 501st Airborne Infantry Battle Group before joining U.S. Army Special Forces in 1963.

Morakon served three tours in Vietnam with the 5th and 3rd Special Forces groups before being appointed command sergeant major in Germany with air defense artillery units.

Throughout his career, Morakon said, he took advantage of every opportunity to get into the air, and he continued jumping after 1980, when he retired from active duty.

On weekends, he jumped with other soldiers in a local parachute club, and that helped lead to his job with the U.S. Army Airborne Board in 1984.

Morakon said he helped write airborne procedures for more than a dozen aircraft, including Russian biplanes, a Boeing 707 and various Army planes, including the C-5, C-17 and C-141.

He also tested the M-4 and M-6 parachutes.

"Anything that an airborne or special operations soldier had to wear and jump out of an airplane with, we tested it," Morakon said.

In all, Morakon estimates that he made between 500 and 1,000 static-line jumps and said his personal logs show he made 4,408 free-fall parachute jumps.

His last jumps were at the age of 78, a month before his retirement on Fort Bragg.

He made two free-fall jumps from an airfield in Raeford, he said.

Years later, Morakon said he misses the sky and the butterflies that always filled his stomach as he waited to jump.

"You're always anxious to get out there," he said.

But after having two knees replaced and battling prostate cancer, Morakon said his jumping days are over.

Looking back, Morakon said he has no regrets about pursuing his passion.

He said he is thankful that God allowed him to do what he loved for so long.

"If I had to do it all over again, I would," he said.