99-Year-Old Paratrooper Was Also An Avid Car Collector

When it comes to life and death, what matters most is how you spent your time "living the dash" between those two important dates. Will you be remembered for hardly living or living hard?

Polito "Paul" Olivas, a well-known Mililani man, will be remembered for the latter as he was a paratrooper in the Army, and he also had a love for fixing up and collecting vintage cars, mainly Ford Mustangs. Paul passed away on September 28th, 2019, at the ripe old age of 99.

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Going back to his love for the vintage Ford Mustang, he was known in Hawaii as Mr. Mustang. He loved to work on the cars and restore them. Even more, he founded the Aloha Mustang and Shelby Club of Hawaii and organized events to keep the Mustang hobby strong in the middle of the Pacific. He owned plenty of examples of the car over the years.

Back in August 2018 on Oahu, Paul made headlines when he made a tandem jump with Skydive Hawaii at Dillingham Airfield at 14,000 feet at the age of 98. "Excellent... "Let's do it again," he was quoted as saying after his one-minute free fall. Before then, he recalls his last jump being from 1964. Skydiving is a huge rush, but it is also freeing in the moment during free fall where time doesn't even seem to exist anymore. 

Paul was a member of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II, and later served in South Korea and the Vietnam War. He was also an original member of the "Green Berets" in 1952 before it was known as the 10th Special Forces Group.

Paul was noted saying that he had never finished the seventh grade and came from humble beginnings. As a kid, he lived in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico that did not have electricity or running water, and was covered with dirt floors. Paul called it "cowboy country" and said it was full of rattlesnakes and prairie dogs.

Having lied about his age to gain entry into the Army at 16 (18 was the legal age), the two year difference messing with him his whole life. In 2018 when he made the skydiving jump, he said he was 100 years old, but was 98. No matter what, still an impressive feat to jump out of an airplane and get that adrenaline rush at such an age.

Experiencing stomach pains, he recently made the trip to the hospital and cancer was evident after the hospital had conducted some tests. He was there for a week, and hospice was set up at his home so he could go home, see his dog, and watch University of Hawaii football. Paul was home for about a half hour before he passed away. A deacon at the Mililani Baptist Church, a service is being held at 10 a.m. on October 19th.

Source: Star Advertiser