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MADRID (AP) - Spain's King Juan Carlos has arrived at a hospital in Madrid to undergo hip surgery to give him greater mobility.

The king smiled from the front passenger seat of a chauff… Click to Read More and see additional updates

MADRID (AP) - Spain's King Juan Carlos has arrived at a hospital in Madrid to undergo hip surgery to give him greater mobility.

The king smiled from the front passenger seat of a chauffeured car and joked with a large group of journalists that had gathered at the entrance to the Quiron San Jose hospital on Friday.

Juan Carlos told government leaders gathered at the Iberoamerican Summit last week he had to "go back to the workshop."

The 74-year-old monarch will have the operation on his left hip. In April he was flown back from a controversial elephant hunting safari in southern Africa after fracturing his right hip joint.

The king has had several health issues in the past two years, including knee surgery and the removal of a benign lung tumor.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Millicent Peterson Young remembers the first time she saw an airplane; it was when a man flew in to visit her neighbors in the late-1920s. She was six. The man landed in Young's family pasture, and she ran over to see it.

"The man says, 'little girl don't touch the airplane,' and that decided me right there; first I had to violate his law, I touched the airplane," says Young, knowing right then that she wanted to be a pilot.

Over the past few weeks News 5 has been telling the stories of local pilots from the World War Ii-era, in the lead-up to the grand opening of the new National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs; that's on October 13th. The Museum is located at 765 Airport Road, backing up to the runway at the Colorado Springs Airport.

Young is one of those pilots, and one who helped pioneer roles for women in aviation.

She took her first ride in a plane when she was 14, and finally learned to fly in college.

"It was the feeling of the power of the aircraft," Young says is what really drew her to flying.

In the 1940s Young went to Sweetwater, Texas, looking to join a new unit that would free up more men pilots for combat roles -- the Women's Airforce Service Pilots. 25,000 women applied, but in the end 1,074 graduated. Young was then a "WASP" as the women in the program were called.

"We flew every kind of airplane that there was in the inventory at that time," explains Young. "We were test pilots, we were instructors, we were target towers for ground to air and air to air." The list goes on and on.

38 women in the Women's Airforce Service Pilots died.

Russia had women combat pilots at the time, but in the United States women weren't allowed. Integrating women into those roles traditionally held by was slow, and Young ran into resistance.

"I flew into Carlsbad one time and some young dude jumped up onto my AT-6 wing," recalls Young. "He said, 'what are you doing in there!' I said I'm flying the airplane. He said, 'you shouldn't be flying the airplane, I should be flying the airplane, I'm the man."

Young just responded by telling him, "Honey if you were I'd have noticed."

By the end of the war Young was a highly experienced pilot, but outside the military it didn't matter.

"The only thing you could do in the air was be a stewardess, that's it; now you can do whatever you damn well please," says Young. She knows she was a big part of that transition.

"When I get on a plane and there's a women in the cockpit I always let them know who I am, and they always thank me," explains Young. "Somebody said that I had put a few grains of sand in the path, but I always thought I was kicking the big rocks off; getting some of the obstacles off there and then they could smooth their own dang path."

So now, when she thinks about a new museum opening in Colorado Springs, she hopes more little girls will be inspired like she was and take to the skies.

Young still lives in Colorado Springs.

For more on the National Museum of World War II Aviation, click here.

Photos of Young were provided by her son, Bill Young, and FigurativePhoto.com. The photos should not be reused without proper consent.

"I just always wanted to fly airplanes," says Frank Macon, a Tuskegee Airman. "Any airplane would go over and I was out looking at it."

That was growing up for Macon in Colorado Springs in the 20s and 30s. He lived on Pine Street with his two aunts; around the corner was something special for Macon.

"There was a guy building an airplane in there, and this fella happened to be Afro-American," says Macon. "A lot of times I didn't make it to Sunday school, I was there watching him build that airplane."

That passion drove Macon through his life, and his struggle to become a military pilot in a time that was difficult for African Americans.

Colorado Springs will soon be home to a brand new national World War II aviation museum. The grand opening is October 13th; it's located at 765 Aviation Way, backing right up to the runways at the Colorado Springs Airport.

The museum focuses on not only the planes that helped win the war, but also the community effort that made victory possible. That effort was evident across the country, and in southern Colorado.

News 5 has had the opportunity to sit down with some local men and women who played a role in that fight; including Macon.

Macon didn't get his first chance to fly until high school. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th 1941, the U.S. Civil Air Patrol grew, and that's where Macon got his chance.

Before 1940 African Americans had been barred from flying in the U.S. military, but then, in 1941, an all-African American squadron of the Army Air Corps was started in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Macon lied about his age and was accepted into the Tuskegee program, but got kicked out when they discovered he was only 18. Two years later he was back.

"All I was interested in was getting in that aircraft and flying," says Macon. He put up with a lot in the process.

"Just the least little thing and they were washing guys out," describes Macon. "There was an old saying, 'They washed out better pilots at Tuskegee than they graduated any place else.'"

Macon says of the 50 to 75 guys that started with him, only about 10 made it through. Macon was one of them, but he never saw combat. During training late in the war, in 1945, he ruptured his eardrums and was put in the hospital.

"By the time I got out of the hospital and went back, the war was over with," recalls Macon.

Now he's excited for the opening of the new National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs, and he's hopeful for the message it gets across to future generations.

Macon was able to become a pilot in a tough time, and he says that's because of his passion.

"I know every part of this aircraft, and I know how every part works and what it's for," says Macon. That's what he wants kids to find today - their passion.

"Every one of us has something that we can contribute," says Macon. "So get out of my way! Let me alone! Let me do my thing!"

Those are words to live by; Frank Macon sure has.

For more on the National Museum of World War II Aviation, click here.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - As their first debate nears the presidential candidates are letting their running mates do the talking today.

Campaigning in Florida, Vice President Joe Biden says he and President Barack Obama were presented with the prospect of a trillion-dollar budget deficit during their first week in office. Biden blames the deficit on the previous Bush administration, adding that it "put two wars on a credit card" and gave tax cuts to the wealthy after inheriting a balanced budget and revenue surplus from the Clinton administration.

In New Hampshire, Republican Paul Ryan is promising voters they will "live free and prosper" if they elect Mitt Romney. Speaking in Derry this morning, Ryan contrasted the economic stagnation he says will continue if President Barack Obama is re-elected with the prosperity he and Mitt Romney will create.

It was Ryan's second trip in as many weeks to New Hampshire, which backed Obama in 2008 but is considered a swing state this time. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released this week showing Obama ahead in New Hampshire.

Colorado Springs will soon be home to a brand new national World War II aviation museum. The grand opening is October 13th; it's located at 765 Aviation Way, backing right up to the runways at the Colorado Springs Airport.

The museum focuses on not only the planes that helped win the war, but also the community effort that made victory possible. That effort was evident across the country, and in southern Colorado.

News 5 has had the opportunity to sit down with some local men and women who played a role in that fight.

We know all to well how fast we're losing those people and their stories from what's been called the Greatest Generation -- a title dubbed by NBC's Tom Brokaw. News 5 has been sharing stories people involved in that effort in the lead up to the opening of the National Museum of World War II Aviation. The interviews were taped earlier in the summer, but since then one of the people who participated has passed away. Retired Colonial William "Bill" Beck was in the U. S. Army Air Force from the 40s all the way until he retired from the Air Force in 1969. He served as a pilot in World War II in the Pacific. Col. Beck participated in 54 missions before returning home in 1943 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his work in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea and an Air Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster, according to his obituary.

Col. Beck joined the Army Air Corps in March 1941 while in school at Texas A&M.

"I felt like we'd have a war, and I didn't want to be on the ground," recalls Col. Beck. "Ended up leaving Pearl Harbor the week before they (the Japanese) bombed it; on the Sunday before they bombed it."

Col. Beck was right; America joined World War II. Soon he was flying missions in the Pacific Theatre: in New Guinea.

"I flew a couple of B-25 co-pilot missions," says Beck. "Most of my flights were in the A-20 single pilot, twin-engine airplane."

He says they ran a lot of bombing missions. As a young man, he got to watch the power of America's military grow, specifically through the skies.

"We had nothing in aviation really before the war started; there were a few A-20s flying around, a few P-40s," says Col. Beck. "No big effort to build airplanes or get anything done."

But Col. Beck says that changed fast.

"During the war it became a different story."

United States air power played a major role in both the Pacific and in Europe; it's also given Col. Beck a lifetime love of aviation. He's been a strong supporter of the National Museum of World War II Aviation being built in Colorado Springs, and that has come with some perks.

"Well this B-25, I flew it," Col. Beck says with a smile, motioning over his shoulder to a giant, fully-restored B-52 at WestPac Restorations that will be on display at the museum. "Been over a year now." says Col. Beck.

"I had a hard time getting up into the airplane but I made it," says Col. Beck. It had been a while to say the least.

"Yeah," Col. Beck says laughing; "about 40 years."

"It was easy to handle, very smooth," describes Col. Beck. "Just amazing to me what these guys are doing with them."

"Putting the things back together, and they're just like new when they finish with them," add Col. Beck, and that's from someone who saw them in action.

WestPac Restorations uses World War II-era fabrication methods to completely restore the planes back to their original form, on the ground and in the air.

Col. Beck told friends and News 5 how much he loved being around the projects planned for the museum, and he was excited for the opening in October. Col. Beck wanted the stories from that generation to be preserved.

"If you had it to do all over again what would you do differently?" Col. Beck was asked at the end of his interview with News 5 in the summer.

"Nothing," he answered almost as quickly as the question could be asked. "I enjoyed every minute of it; had a great life."

Col. Beck passed away September 6th, 2012 at the age of 91. He's being enshrined with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston in Texas on Friday, September 28th.

News 5 has two more of these stories coming up -- a local Tuskegee Airman, and a member of the Women's Air Service Patrol, pioneering female pilot roles in the military. They'll run on Monday nights at ten, and then their stories will be able to be seen on KOAA.com.

For more on the National Museum of World War II Aviation, click here.

Colorado Springs will soon be home to a brand new national World War II aviation museum. The grand opening is October 13th; it's located at 765 Aviation Way, backing right up to the runways at the Colorado Springs Airport.

The museum focuses on not only the planes that helped win the war, but also the community effort that made victory possible. That effort was evident across the country, and in southern Colorado.

News 5 has had the opportunity to sit down with some local men and women who played a role in that fight.

"It reminds me of the first one that I crawled into," says (ret.) Col. Frank Royal, who flew missions as a pilot in the Pacific during WWII; he tells us that while looking into a restoration project of a P-38 at WestPac Restorations in Colorado Springs. That's what he flew.

Royal's unit, the 39th Fighters, was called to the Pacific shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th 1941.

Now 70 years later Col. Royal might have flown in the plane sitting behind him.

"Very likely," says Col. Royal.

WestPac Restorations pulled the P-38 from a wreckage pit in New Guinea, where the military left it after the war. The facility uses fabrication methods from the 40's and completely restores planes like that P-38; even making them flyable.

The P-38, when finished, will be on display at the soon-to-be National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs opening in October.

"Kind of surprising to think back on what contact I might have had with that airplane those years ago," says Col. Royal, but it wasn't the first plane his squadron, the 39th Fighters, had.

"Initially we had the Bell Airacobra," says Col. Royal. "The Airacobra hadn't been a good airplane for that war."

"We were trying to get on top of the Japanese who had been on top of us because their planes were better for altitude and agility initially," Col. Royal explains. "But we got the P-38s; we were the first squadron in the Pacific to get the 38s." Col. Royal was part of the leadership group that went to get the first fleet of P-38s, and he says they noticed how much they would help right away.

"We could get up above them (the Japanese) because it had supercharger and two engines," says Col. Royal.

They were proud of the new plane, and it was a big help. Col. Royal knows it came to them because of hard work back home.

"Both the Japanese and the Germans were ahead of us in preparing for that war. We were scratching trying to catch up," says Col. Royal. "I think it's different from any war we've had since because there was such an effort, unanimous support, to do what needed to be done."

To this day Royal is still proud he got to help.

Col. Royal tells us the 39th Fighters were the first to shoot down 100 Japanese fighters in the Pacific theater.

For more on the National Museum of World War II Aviation, click here.