Medina graduate pilots F-16 into Northeast Ohio

MEDINA — A Medina native came back to his home state by flying an F-16 to the Akron-Canton Airport on Thursday ahead of the Akron Props and Pistons Festival. U.S. Air Force Capt. Paul "Apostle" Howell graduated from Medina High School and the Medina County Career Center's public safety program in 2007. He comes from a long line of military service as the son of two retired Navy officers and the grandson of a World War II naval aviator. "I knew from a young age that I wanted to serve the country somehow," he said. "As soon as I was 18, I decided to get enlisted in the Navy." Howell enlisted as a hospital corpsman in the Navy and served as a member of the Scout Sniper platoon, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. He completed two deployments to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011 through 2012, during which he received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat Valor and the Purple Heart. He later attended the University of Washington and received his commission into the U.S. Air Force in 2017. He completed his undergraduate pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma and was selected to fly F-16s. "It's a pretty incredible jet to fly because it's one of the first aircraft that had digital flight controls, and the side stick itself doesn't actually move," Howell said. "It's all sensitive to force input, so it really feels like a mind meld between man and machine. After a couple hours of flying, it's kind of intuitive, so you think about how to go somewhere, and it seems like the muscles pull it and the jet seems to take you there." Howell is stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. In July 2025, he was chosen as a support pilot and safety officer for the F-16 Viper Demonstration Team and has since traveled to more than 20 air shows across the country and to places including Peru and the United Arab Emirates. "We have a demonstration pilot who is going to fly at the demonstration itself," he said. "I'm the support pilot and safety officer, so at the air show, I will be sitting there on the radio, listening to him and making sure the show site is safe." The F-16 Viper Demonstration Team will be part of the Props and Pistons Festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Sunday near the Akron Fulton Airport. For more information, visit flyohio.org. "My dad would take me to the Cleveland and Akron air shows every year growing up," Howell said. "It's an incredible honor and opportunity of a lifetime to be able to travel back home to participate in an air show I watched as a 12-year-old, but now with my dad watching me." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.