Veterans tour war memorials

WASHINGTON — Servicemen from Arkansas and Oklahoma traveled Wednesday to Washington to remember their fallen comrades and see their nation’s battle monuments.

About 75 veterans, accompanied by scores of volunteers, flew from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, rising before dawn and returning at sundown.

The daylong trip was organized by O&A [Oklahoma and Arkansas] Honor Flight, based in Siloam Springs, and is affiliated with the national Honor Flight Network.

Members of the Arkansas congressional delegation were on hand to welcome the warriors, who represented the span of three wars.

“For some of them, they’re answering their final roll call,” said 3rd District U.S. Rep. Steve Womack of Rogers. “To be able to see the joy and the pride that they have when they come see [the] memorial … [is] one of the most heartwarming emotional experiences you’ll have up here.”

More than 16 million Americans served in World War II, and more than 4 million of them were still alive in May 2004 when the World War II monument was dedicated. Today, there are fewer than 700,000, according to the National World War II Museum, including about 7,600 in Arkansas and 9,400 in Oklahoma.

Over the past decade, Honor Flight Network has ferried more than 159,000 World War II vets to see the massive granite and bronze shrine.

More than 900 of those were taken to the capital by Honor Flight Northwest Arkansas, a group that disbanded after making 11 trips between 2009 and 2014.

Wednesday’s was the new group’s first.

Three chartered buses carried the former soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines past the Pentagon, over the Potomac River and into the nation’s capital.

A police officer on a motorcycle led the procession, red and blue lights flashing.

They journeyed first to the World War II memorial; the flight included 15 survivors of that conflict. Next they stopped near the Lincoln Memorial so the five dozen Korean War and Vietnam War veterans could see the landmarks honoring their service.

Later, they viewed the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, with its statue depicting the raising of the flag over Iwo Jima, and the U.S. Air Force Memorial, three stainless steel arcs, each of them more than 200 feet tall.

In between, they took a detour to Arlington National Cemetery, the 625-acre hillside where 400,000 people are buried.

About two dozen of the Arkansas and Oklahoma contingent were in wheelchairs and they moved slowly, halting as a lone bugler played taps, pausing to observe the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Throughout the day, white-haired men recalled the horrors of battle and the relief they felt when they returned home.

War, 98-year-old John Rotert said, is “a hell of a place to be. … I try not to remember it; a lot of bad memories. One in 10 in my company didn’t come back.”

The Fort Smith resident and former Army sergeant served “all over the South Pacific” and was there when Japan finally surrendered. It was, he said, “the best day of my life. I didn’t get drunk because I didn’t drink alcohol, but we celebrated. … [It was] more of a relief than you’ll ever know.”

Russell Chaney, 91, described being part of a map-making unit in New Guinea. “We gathered data from the [Army Air Corps] and the Navy and then we drafted the maps. We had our own printing presses, but we were out in the jungle,” the former army corporal said.

The Pryor, Okla., resident was 18 when he headed overseas. “It was an adventure to start with. Then it got kind of old,” he said.

He spent three Christmases away from home. Instead of his mother’s holiday cooking, he had to settle for Uncle Sam’s rations. “Oh, we had sort of a dinner. Spam and some dehydrated potatoes. A few things like that,” he said.

Herbert Henderson, 88, was too young to go to war when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. But he remembers watching his older classmates depart.

“We went to school Monday and all of the seniors … were enlisting in the Army,” he said. “By the 12th or the 15th of December, half of the senior class of men was gone,” he said. By the time Henderson enlisted in 1946, the war was over. The Army Air Corps sent him to a base near Anchorage, Alaska, where he became an aircraft mechanic.

Seven decades later, he still remembers classmates who gave their lives.

“If you go down to Waldron, the county seat, and look out on the courthouse lawn [at the veterans memorial], you’ll see a lot of names there that were killed in that war and a lot of those names are the people that enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor,” he said. “There were a lot of them that didn’t come home.”

U.S. Sen. John Boozman, who greeted the men, said it’s important to honor what he called “the Greatest Generation.”

Trips to the memorial mean a lot to the veterans who visit, he said.

“I’ll tell you, it’s nice for them but it’s also so nice for my staff and myself that we get to participate and just pat them on the back and tell them how much we appreciate them,” the Rogers Republican said.

It cost between $90,000 and $100,000 to organize the flight, according to Rob Hopkins of Decatur, the Arkansas group’s director.

Wal-Mart paid for one of the meals. The night before the trip, the Cherokee Casino and Hotel in West Siloam Springs, Okla., provided lodging.

Dozens of “guardians” who made the trip paid $500 each for the opportunity to accompany and assist the former military men. The aging veterans flew for free, their expenses covered by donations.

The trip, Hopkins said, is a way to acknowledge the sacrifices of brave Arkansans and Oklahomans, a gesture to thank them for safeguarding liberty.

“I’m breathing free air today,” Hopkins said, “and it’s due to these guys.”

The Arkansas group already is receiving applications for the next flight, which is still in the planning stages.

Nationwide, there are about 4,200 World War II veterans on the Honor Flight Network’s waiting lists.

Jim McLaughlin, chairman and president of the national Honor Flight Network, said World War II veterans were the group’s original focus and they remain the top priority.

But he envisions the program continuing even after the World War II generation passes, honoring warriors from the 1950s, 1960s and beyond.

“We feel it’s important for the veterans to have the opportunity to see the memorials that were built to recognize their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their friends and buddies,” he said.

The trips will continue “as long as the funds are there to support the operation,” he said.

Honor Flight

• Information about O&A Honor Flight is available at oahonorflight.org.

• Honor Flight Network’s website is honorflight.org and its phone number is (937) 521-2400.

Source: Staff report

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