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Triad veterans get a visit to the memorial of their war
Journal Photo by Walt Unks
Dianne Wood welcomes her father, Hubert Foltz of Winston-Salem, as he returns to Piedmont Triad International Airport as part of the Triad Flight of Honor to Washington.
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Published: October 29, 2009
WASHINGTON - Augmented by sirens, police escorts and brass bands, yesterday's Triad Flight of Honor took on the flavor of a reunion combined with a Veterans Day parade.
Which was to be expected, since the entire day was set up to honor local World War II veterans.
Old soldiers who fought in all corners of the globe filed into Washington from across the country -- including 102 veterans from the Triad, as well as groups from Illinois, Ohio, Alabama and Kentucky -- for a day of reflection, remembrance and fellowship.
War stories were swapped, backs slapped and jokes exchanged as the North Carolina veterans boarded an early-morning flight from Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro for the daylong tour of the capital and celebration.
The centerpiece, of course, was a morning tour of the World War II Memorial, a monument many of the veterans had never seen before.
"It's one of those situations where you visualize how its going to look, but until you get here and lay eyes on it, you don't really know," said Ivey Redmon, 86, of Kernersville.
"It's awesome."
Fast-spreading idea
The idea to fly veterans to our nation's capital to view their memorial was born in Springfield, Ohio, when a retired Air Force captain who was working as a physician's assistant decided that he wanted to fly some of his elderly patients to see their memorial.
That first flight in May 2005 -- a year after the memorial opened -- had 12 veterans on it. Soon, other similar efforts, including one in Hendersonville, N.C., coalesced into a national movement.
With World War II veterans dying at a rate of nearly 1,200 a day, civic groups across the country have taken up the cause of supporting the Flight of Honor.
Here in the Triad, the effort was led by the 51 clubs that make up District 7690 of the Rotary Club. Rotarians helped to arrange such things as the fundraising -- each flight costs about $50,000 to charter -- recruiting sponsors and signing up the veterans themselves.
The extras -- a water-cannon salute by the airport fire departments in Greensboro and at Washington's Reagan National Airport, escorts by the Patriot Guard motorcycle club -- evolved along the way. Each group of three veterans was accompanied by a "guardian," a volunteer who came along to help those to whom they felt were owed a great debt.
"I've volunteered for a lot of things in my time, but this is about the most rewarding," said Wayne Sparks, a retired Army paratrooper captain from Yadkinville.
Once a nurse ...
The day before the Triad Flight of Honor lifted off, Mary Boyles -- a former first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and a nurse who served in forward hospitals in North Africa and Italy as American forces advanced -- didn't quite know what to expect.
She figured that she would spend some time reflecting on her service and the great pride she had in her time in uniform, and perhaps tell a few stories.
"I was called. It was simple as that," she said of the draft notice Uncle Sam sent in January 1941 to a young nurse who had recently graduated from Furman University. "It was something that I had to offer, and I was delighted that I had something to offer my country."
When she stepped off the plane to a brass band reception at Reagan National Airport, Boyles was a little overwhelmed by the attention -- especially when strangers in a hurry to catch connecting flights stopped to applaud.
"This is just … wonderful," she said.
A few moments later, Boyles stopped to turn her attention to Harvey Hicks, a veteran from King, who was in a wheelchair. She patted his arm gently and asked repeatedly what she might do for him.
She's 93 and maybe 105 pounds soaking wet, and yet Boyles was still looking after her soldiers. Once a nurse, always a nurse.
"I've been to Washington, but I haven't seen the memorial," she said Tuesday afternoon. "I'm sure I'll stop and think about certain names of people I knew of who didn't make it. Sometimes you can't help but think of the ones you couldn't help."
‘A great bond'
Once at the memorial, the veterans paused for a quick group photo and stopped to listen to welcoming remarks issued by politicians of every political stripe.
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, greeted the vets warmly as they slowly descended steps off their tour buses. U.S. Sens. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, and Richard Burr, a Republican, also turned up, as did former Sen. Bob Dole, a Republican from Kansas.
Once freed from the speech-making, the veterans fanned out to take in the sights of a memorial too long in the making. Those that served in the Pacific gravitated toward the side of the memorial dedicated to that theater. Those who served in Europe tended toward that side to look at the names of long-ago battles and ponder their place in them.
All seemed to enjoy the attention from visitors. Active-duty soldiers stopped to shake hands with their older counterparts. A young mother pushing a double stroller stopped to let her children get photographed with a veteran. "The next generation," the man said.
Toward the end of the day, some of the veterans had grown weary -- replaced knees and hips somehow never work as well as the originals.
Still, spirits remained high.
"It sure was great to be here with all these guys," said Earl Holt, an Army veteran from Burlington. "It's a great bond, a certain bond you don't get anywhere else."
ssexton@wsjournal.com
(336) 727-7481
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