thedrifter
05-06-09, 05:33 AM
Honor Flight to take 91 WWII vets to memorial
By Garry Mitchell - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 5, 2009 14:40:03 EDT
MOBILE, Ala. — John Deloney said he was caring for horses for the ROTC at Auburn University to help pay his tuition when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941.
Within months, Deloney and his classmates were called to fight in World War II.
“We people in the horse-drawn artillery from Auburn went in as a unit,” he recalled in an interview at his home in Daphne. “We did not stay in the artillery. By then, they had gotten jeeps to pull the howitzers instead of horses.”
On Wednesday morning, 87-year-old Deloney will be among 91 south Alabama veterans from that war to take an Honor Flight for their first look at the National World War II Memorial, which opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C. They will be accompanied by 42 guardians, including medical staff.
Flight organizer Margaret Coley said the oldest veteran in the group is 95-year-old Colwin Steadham of Grove Hill, and two others are 92. The flight returns Wednesday evening.
Some 20,000 veterans in the U.S. over the past five years have taken the flights sponsored by a Springfield, Ohio-based nonprofit organization, said Earl Morse, a former Air Force pilot who founded Honor Flight. Morse said flights have been organized in 48 states, with none yet from Alaska and Hawaii.
“Once they land, they usually are met by a cheering crowd. Just about everybody is crying,” Morse said by telephone Monday. He said airport officials announce the special passengers’ arrival, generating the crowd.
Morse said the flights are important because some veterans never got a cheering welcome when they returned from the war. He said some hitchhiked home, and now, their numbers are dwindling with age.
The flights are free to veterans, but guardians must pay. Corporate sponsors and individuals raised $75,000 for the charter flight. Some 260 veterans applied for the trip, so at least two more flights are planned later and fundraising continues for those trips, Coley said Tuesday.
During Wednesday’s flight, letters written by schoolchildren will be delivered to the veterans, and the students’ hand-crafted gifts, such as cushion neck rests, will be handed out.
In an interview Monday, Delonge, who served in the Army’s 102nd Infantry Division, said he didn’t give any thought about the lack of a WWII memorial in the nation’s capital after the war.
“I had not even thought about it. I was so busy living a good life, and I didn’t have to speak German,” he said, recalling his combat days in Europe against the Nazis.
He said he expects the memorial in Washington will affect him emotionally.
“You can’t help but be close to the person with a rifle protecting your right side and your left side. When I walk up to that memorial and see the names of those people, sure it will affect me. In fact, I wish I didn't have to see that. Not that I don’t want to see it. I wish it had never happened.”
He survived the war with a shrapnel graze on his forehead. He said that “thanks to the GI bill,” he became a professor at Auburn and later was president of what is now the University of West Alabama in Livingston.
Ellie
By Garry Mitchell - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 5, 2009 14:40:03 EDT
MOBILE, Ala. — John Deloney said he was caring for horses for the ROTC at Auburn University to help pay his tuition when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941.
Within months, Deloney and his classmates were called to fight in World War II.
“We people in the horse-drawn artillery from Auburn went in as a unit,” he recalled in an interview at his home in Daphne. “We did not stay in the artillery. By then, they had gotten jeeps to pull the howitzers instead of horses.”
On Wednesday morning, 87-year-old Deloney will be among 91 south Alabama veterans from that war to take an Honor Flight for their first look at the National World War II Memorial, which opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C. They will be accompanied by 42 guardians, including medical staff.
Flight organizer Margaret Coley said the oldest veteran in the group is 95-year-old Colwin Steadham of Grove Hill, and two others are 92. The flight returns Wednesday evening.
Some 20,000 veterans in the U.S. over the past five years have taken the flights sponsored by a Springfield, Ohio-based nonprofit organization, said Earl Morse, a former Air Force pilot who founded Honor Flight. Morse said flights have been organized in 48 states, with none yet from Alaska and Hawaii.
“Once they land, they usually are met by a cheering crowd. Just about everybody is crying,” Morse said by telephone Monday. He said airport officials announce the special passengers’ arrival, generating the crowd.
Morse said the flights are important because some veterans never got a cheering welcome when they returned from the war. He said some hitchhiked home, and now, their numbers are dwindling with age.
The flights are free to veterans, but guardians must pay. Corporate sponsors and individuals raised $75,000 for the charter flight. Some 260 veterans applied for the trip, so at least two more flights are planned later and fundraising continues for those trips, Coley said Tuesday.
During Wednesday’s flight, letters written by schoolchildren will be delivered to the veterans, and the students’ hand-crafted gifts, such as cushion neck rests, will be handed out.
In an interview Monday, Delonge, who served in the Army’s 102nd Infantry Division, said he didn’t give any thought about the lack of a WWII memorial in the nation’s capital after the war.
“I had not even thought about it. I was so busy living a good life, and I didn’t have to speak German,” he said, recalling his combat days in Europe against the Nazis.
He said he expects the memorial in Washington will affect him emotionally.
“You can’t help but be close to the person with a rifle protecting your right side and your left side. When I walk up to that memorial and see the names of those people, sure it will affect me. In fact, I wish I didn't have to see that. Not that I don’t want to see it. I wish it had never happened.”
He survived the war with a shrapnel graze on his forehead. He said that “thanks to the GI bill,” he became a professor at Auburn and later was president of what is now the University of West Alabama in Livingston.
Ellie