Veterans get free flight to visit war memorials in D.C. By Andy Graham 331-4215|agraham@heraldt.com
November 13, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The applause started as a smattering, then grew to a crescendo as the 40 veterans of the first Hoosier Honor Flight deplaned Wednesday morning at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. A simple announcement regarding the arrival of World War II veterans prompted the salute from fellow Americans waiting in the terminal to board their own flights. The ovation continued unabated for 10 minutes, until every veteran was off the plane from Indianapolis. “I’ll tell you, that was thrilling,” said William Pearson, 84, who served in the South Pacific. “That alone was enough to make the trip worthwhile.” But there was plenty more on the agenda when the veterans — hailing from Monroe, Morgan, Brown, Greene and Lawrence counties — reached their primary destinations at the National Mall in Washington and at Arlington National Cemetery. The one-day trip, organized by Col. John Tilford, U.S. Army Reserve retired and several other volunteers, showcased the World War II Memorial. That remains the primary impetus of the nonprofit Honor Flight movement, which began three years ago in Ohio — to help World War II vets get a look at their memorial while there is still time with expenses-paid trips. The nation is losing World War II veterans at a rate of nearly 1,200 per day. Of the more than 16 million Americans who served, 12 million have since died. Wednesday’s trip also featured side junkets to the Lincoln Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. And more happy greetings ensued. Russell Watson, whose 21st birthday was Dec. 7, 1941, was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack came that morning. Wednesday, when he stepped off the bus at the World War II Memorial, he had a much nicer surprise. His daughter, Rebecca Watson-Hillenburg, and grandson, Russell Hillenburg, had flown up from Texas to spend the day with him. “This is something we wanted to share with my dad, a memory for all of us,” Watson-Hillenburg said. “He had wanted to come here two years ago, then couldn’t make it, so he’s especially grateful to have had this chance today.” Watson and his family members posed for pictures next to the spot at the memorial where Roosevelt’s famous “date which will live in infamy” quotation was inscribed in the granite.
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Not everything at the memorial was sobering. At the other side, near the Pennsylvania column, several of the visiting vets got to grinning when they found a piece of graffiti once very familiar to them: “Kilroy was here.” But once across the Potomac into Virginia, the veterans saw the Iwo Jima memorial and were taken to Arlington National Cemetery, where at least 342,000 are interred, marked by seemingly endless rows of white tombstones marching across the rolling hills. At the national cemetery, they witnessed the changing of guard ceremony and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Clarence Alexander, Lawrence Edwards, Glenville Barringer and Charles Wier were randomly selected from the contingent to lay the wreath. It was a fitting end to a visit which, overall, went very smoothly. It was the first full day of flights at Indianapolis International Airport’s spectacular new terminal but, despite hiccups such as Southwestern Airline personnel arriving to discover their computers had no keyboards, things stayed pretty much on schedule for the group all the way through the concluding “pre-planned mess” at Mooresville’s Gray Brothers Cafeteria. The vets and their chaperones, the latter paying around $400 apiece to do their part for the junket, were clearly pleased. “It was a long day,” said Bloomington’s Jim Siscoe, who served in Italy with the 11th Mountain Division, “but a really good one.” Another flight is already being planned for this spring, with about 20 local veterans signed on. Those interested in participating can call 812-349-2568, e-mail vethelp@co.monroe.in.us or write the Monroe County Veteran Affairs Dept., 240 W. Seventh St., Room 240, Bloomington, IN 47404.
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