The Men Will Cheer and The Boys Will Shout

For the past two years, my friend and golf partner, Wendy, has invited me to join him at the annual community event that  honors local veterans right around the national Veterans' Day Observance in November.  Wendy endured WW II, and, for 25 or 26 years, he has endured my golf game.  He says he isn't sure which is worse, but at least the war ended.

Last year, we heard for the first time about the Honor Flight, a program that flies WW II vets to Washington, D.C., to tour the WW II Monument and most all other monuments to U.S. service men and women participants in our country's wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

We applied for the Flight, were accepted, and took off in the early morning of October 11, 2014.

 At the prior briefing, we learned something about the founding and structure of Honor Flights, as well as the details of our forthcoming adventure.  It was to be a one day roundtrip.  We were directed to report by 4:30 a.m. for departure at 5:00.  All we needed to bring was what we had on, along with maybe a jacket, any regularly needed  medical devices, plus items of personal comfort such as nasal inhalers, chapsticks, Tylenol, Tums, and so on, and cameras for those who don't carry cellphones.  We were specifically told that we would have no need for money.  Everything on the trip would be taken care of for us.  They weren't kidding.  The forecast for D.C. was for intermittant morning showers the day we left.  Not to worry.  There was an ample supply of ponchos, remindful of Guam, Marianas-Bonins Command, but furnished this trip by the St. Paul Saints baseball club.

Honor Flights Twin Cities, a Minnesota Vietnam Veterans' Charity, sponsored the excursion.  It was the 13th in the series.  Two more are being planned for 2015, and the intent is to continue into the future.  Time is an obvious factor.  The VA estimates that 555 WWII vets across the country pass on each day, and one projection indicates their ranks will have emptied by 2020.  Indeed, the plan is to invite Korean War GI's to join their WW II comrades on the 2015 flights, with the vets of Viet Nam, and their successors from the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan waiting in line.

80 vets made the October 11th  flight.  Each had a guardian to accompany and tend to him.  The guardians were mostly family, but also included organization members, some of whom have participated in multiple flights.  Each guardian contributed $500 for the privilege.

There may have been some wrinkles or snafus in the beginning stages of the event, but nothing of the kind occurred this time.  The planning was comprehensive in every aspect and the execution was flawless.
   
We were met at the entrance to MSP Terminal 2, and ushered directly to a Sun Country Airlines departure gate, where we noshed on coffee and doughnuts while the complement assembled.   Shortly after takeoff, we were served a hot breakfast, just as commercial flights used to do. How about that?

 Everywhere we went, in the terminal and all during the flight, we were welcomed with smiles and thanked for our service.  The same deluxe treatment awaited us upon landing, and even though the sky was drizzling, there was sunshine and warmth under our ponchos as we boarded the buses to begin the tour.

We stopped first at Arlington National at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and  its spectacular view to the east with the Washington Monument and  Capitol Dome plainly visible, to observe in respectful silence the changing of the guard.  From there, it was on to the Air Force Monument,
followed by that of WW II, which included a flag ceremony ending with Taps.  Next came the Lincoln, Korean War, and Viet Nam memorials,  the monument to Nurses, and the Marine sculpture of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima.

Our stay in D.C. closed with a buffet dinner, the likes of which no one ever saw in any GI mess hall.
Sated and sleepy, we boarded the charter for the flight home.

Back in MSP Terminal 2, we were greeted by an uproar that would be difficult to describe.  Suffice to say, it topped all my boyhood dreams of rounding third base on my home run trot in Yankee Stadium, "running the ball clear round Chicago, touchdown sure this time," or hoisting the Little Brown Jug.
Wow.  Men were cheering, boys were shouting, the ladies, they all turned out, and we all felt gay and uniquely honored.

Jerry and Jana Kyser are Sgt. Major and Mrs. Sgt. Major of Honor Flight Twin Cities.  Can't say enough about them and their associates, nor the 80 guardians, who were well-instructed and performed nobly.

More information on Honor Flight Twin Cities' web site, and the national web site at www.HonorFlight.org.

Thanks again, Minnesota Viet Nam Veterans Charity.