thedrifter
05-10-09, 08:10 AM
Moments in time
Honor Flight transports WWII vets to D.C. — and 64 years into the past
Mike Peters,
On Aug. 15, 1945, World War II ended. It was called V-J Day — Victory in Japan — and it essentially ended the war. Victory in Europe Day was three months earlier, on May 8, 1945, when Germany surrendered.
For the World War II veterans who were there 64 years ago, it was an unforgettable time.
In late April, on a rain-drenched day in Washington, 130 World War II veterans from northern Colorado got to see their memorial for the first time. Memories, like the rain, poured over them.
» FEBRUARY 1945: Marine Rex Hester is in a foxhole on Iwo Jima, a rock-hard island in the South Pacific that will become a historic monument to the U.S. Marines. He’s injured, because a Japanese hand grenade blew nearby, the shrapnel piercing his upper leg. He will carry that shrapnel for the rest of his life.
He doesn’t know if he will live through this battle, because the enemy is so hidden. “We aren’t supposed to win,” Hester says, “because they’re so embedded in tunnels and caves. We aren’t supposed to win.”
But they do.
For Hester, the Washington memorial to the flag-raising at Iwo Jima is inspiring, but also silencing. He stares without words for a while, then softly speaks, “I didn’t get to see the flag go up on the hill because I was laying in the damn foxhole.”
The end of the war came while he was back in the states, in Colorado Springs.
“After I got wounded at Iwo Jima,” Hester said, “the Marines decided to send me to Officer Candidate School at Colorado College.”
They were going to make Hester an officer and then send him back into war. It never happened, because the war ended while Hester was in school. “The best part of Colorado College was when I met Judy,” Hester says today.
Hester’s wife of 60 years, Judy Hester, died last year.
» » »
» JUNE 1945: Al Chotvacs is tired. He’s been in Europe for more than a year, from landing in Normandy to the difficult march to Germany, and now the American soldiers are killing time outside of Berlin. The war in Europe ended in May, when Adolf Hitler killed himself and the Germans surrendered.
After they reached Berlin, orders came, telling them not to go any farther, to let the Russians take Berlin. He’s not happy about it, but Chotvacs and his fellow solders just stay at camp for months, watching over the German prisoners they’d captured.
It was a long time since Normandy, where Chotvacs came ashore. He’s seen dead civilians, soldiers, even dead children; he was nearly killed himself when a piece of shrapnel tore through his sleeping bag while he slept.
There are memories he’s likely to keep with him, though, of buddies he fought with, of seeing Europe, of feelings of fear and exhilaration and awe. He fondly recalls that Christmas Day when the GIs shared their only candy bars with children hiding from the German bombs.
“I knew we’d be shipped out of Europe pretty soon and be sent to invade Japan,” Chotvacs says on a Washington, D.C., morning from a wheelchair inside the huge World War II Memorial. “Then we heard about the atomic bomb being dropped, and then the war was over. You can’t believe how happy everyone was.”
» » »
» AUG. 6, 1945: Annie May Pierce, a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency service) from Greeley, is excited about the coming end to the war. She heard on the radio today about the bomb they dropped on Hiroshima and she hurried across town to where she was sure there would be excited crowds — in front of the White House in Washington.
“I thought there would be a lot going on,” she says now, standing near the South Pacific end of the World War II Memorial. “But there wasn’t anything going on. Nobody was around. It was very strange.” Nine days later, Washington and the entire country would celebrate the end of the war.
On this same day 64 years ago, Annie May’s husband, Lowel Pierce, is on a Navy LST landing ship on the Atlantic Ocean. There is talk of an invasion of Japan. But a few days later, by the time they reach Panama, the war has ended. “I don’t know if we celebrated very much on ship,” Lowel Pierce said “But everybody was really glad it was finally over.”
» » »
» AUG. 14, 1945: It’s a day earlier here in San Francisco than in Japan, where the surrender just took place, and Jean Anderson is excited. She’s a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency service) in the Navy and her parents are still a little surprised that she enlisted. Her job during this war is to help clear all messages from ships and from shore and to keep them confidential.
“We could hear the cheering outside when they announced the war was over,” Anderson says today, standing in the rain in Washington, in front of the monument. “They told us not to go outside during the celebration, because it wasn’t safe for young women out there.”
After the war, Anderson would find a home in Greeley.
» » »
» AUG. 15, 1945: Warren Wille is the pilot of a B-29, dropping bombs on islands in the South Pacific. In recent days, there were bombing raids over Japan, and every GI knew a ground invasion of Japan was coming.
“We were on the airstrip waiting to take off,” Wille, now a Windsor resident, says while standing near the fountain of the WWII Memorial “We were just dropping leaflets this time, telling the Japanese people to surrender before the invasion.”
Sixty-four years ago, a Jeep swings madly down the air strip and pulls up beside Wille’s B-29. “It’s over!” someone shouts from the Jeep. The war was over.
“We just started celebrating like crazy,” Wille says today. “If they hadn’t given up, we would have had to invade.”
» » »
It rained while the veterans were in D.C. Not hard, like they saw in the South Pacific and not as cold as the Battle of the Bulge a lifetime ago, but a gentle, springlike gray rain. It probably kept some of the crowds away, so the veterans from northern Colorado had much of the memorial to themselves, which was a good thing.
They visited the World War II Memorial that day, but also stopped at the statue of Iwo Jima, the Vietnam Wall and the Korean War Memorial. Through the day, people who noticed their “World War II Veteran” hats stopped and thanked them. Sailors pushed their wheelchairs, soldiers saluted them.
At the Vietnam Wall, a group of junior high girls from Chattanooga asked if they could stand beside the vets for photos.
The girls said they wanted to have their picture taken with a real hero.
About the memorial
The World War II Memorial is located on the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
According to Washington, D.C., information, the Washington Monument represents the most important event in the United States in the 1700s; the Lincoln Memorial represents the most important event of the 1800s; and the World War II Memorial represents the most important of the 1900s.
Nearby war memorials include the Vietnam Wall and the Korean Memorial.
» $175 million: The amount of money donated to build the memorial, headed by former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. Most of the costs came from private funding.
» 8: Bronze eagles with laurel wreaths throughout the memorial. Each eagle weighs 20,000 pounds.
» 384: Number of feet the memorial spans — longer than a football field and almost twice as wide.
» 56: Number of pillars around the memorial — one for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.
» 16 million: Number of Americans who served in World War II. More than 400,000 Americans died.
» 14,000: Number of World War II veterans now living in Weld and Larimer counties
» 1,100: World War II veterans who die every day across the United States.
Quotable
For two days, the 130 World War II vets and their guardians were almost overwhelmed by the attention and memories from six decades past. This is what some of them had to say: » » » “I remember we each had a big chocolate bar that our officers told us that we had to save until we were three days without food, and we’d eat it in an emergency. It was Christmas 1944, and we were camped in an area where they’d evacuated the children of London during the bombing raids. The kids were so sad about Christmas, and one of our guys gave a kid his chocolate bar. Pretty soon, we all dug them out of our packs for the kids. It was my most memorable Christmas.” Al Chotvacs, Greeley » » » “They clapped and parted the aisles for us, just like we were really something!” Andy Anderson, Greeley, after arrival at Baltimore airport and loud applause from people in the terminal » » » “Of all the deserving charities in northern Colorado, the Honor Flight is so important because we’re running out of heroes to honor. We need to get these guys to D.C. before they’re gone, so they can see what was done for them.” Martin Lind of Water Valley in Windsor. Lind, one of the main contributors and supporters of the Honor Flight, and his wife and two children worked as guardians on the April flight. » » » “Tonight, I’m in the company of the very best our country has to offer. At the same time, my heroes are also our sons and daughters who are standing point for us around the world — looking evil in the eye and not blinking. And years ago, when our freedom hung in the balance, when our backs were to the wall, it was you — the World War II heroes — who also stepped forward. I want to thank you for our freedom today.” Lt. Gen. James L Campbell, Pentagon, at the banquet for the World War II vets » » » “It was kind of a crispy ride down here, but it was worth it. Those vets kept thanking us for the escort, but actually, we’re here to thank them.” Pat McDonnell, Eaton, a member of the Patriot Guard Motorcycle Club who escorted the vets’ buses from the Budweiser Center to Denver. » » » “I don’t think there will ever be another time like that. The entire country fought that war. The GIs were overseas, the folks back home were sacrificing everything they could for the war effort. The country will never come together like that again.” Rex Hester, Greeley, former Greeley Central High School principal and Iwo Jima veteran
Video
http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090510/NEWS/905079958/-1/rss02&template=printart
Ellie
Honor Flight transports WWII vets to D.C. — and 64 years into the past
Mike Peters,
On Aug. 15, 1945, World War II ended. It was called V-J Day — Victory in Japan — and it essentially ended the war. Victory in Europe Day was three months earlier, on May 8, 1945, when Germany surrendered.
For the World War II veterans who were there 64 years ago, it was an unforgettable time.
In late April, on a rain-drenched day in Washington, 130 World War II veterans from northern Colorado got to see their memorial for the first time. Memories, like the rain, poured over them.
» FEBRUARY 1945: Marine Rex Hester is in a foxhole on Iwo Jima, a rock-hard island in the South Pacific that will become a historic monument to the U.S. Marines. He’s injured, because a Japanese hand grenade blew nearby, the shrapnel piercing his upper leg. He will carry that shrapnel for the rest of his life.
He doesn’t know if he will live through this battle, because the enemy is so hidden. “We aren’t supposed to win,” Hester says, “because they’re so embedded in tunnels and caves. We aren’t supposed to win.”
But they do.
For Hester, the Washington memorial to the flag-raising at Iwo Jima is inspiring, but also silencing. He stares without words for a while, then softly speaks, “I didn’t get to see the flag go up on the hill because I was laying in the damn foxhole.”
The end of the war came while he was back in the states, in Colorado Springs.
“After I got wounded at Iwo Jima,” Hester said, “the Marines decided to send me to Officer Candidate School at Colorado College.”
They were going to make Hester an officer and then send him back into war. It never happened, because the war ended while Hester was in school. “The best part of Colorado College was when I met Judy,” Hester says today.
Hester’s wife of 60 years, Judy Hester, died last year.
» » »
» JUNE 1945: Al Chotvacs is tired. He’s been in Europe for more than a year, from landing in Normandy to the difficult march to Germany, and now the American soldiers are killing time outside of Berlin. The war in Europe ended in May, when Adolf Hitler killed himself and the Germans surrendered.
After they reached Berlin, orders came, telling them not to go any farther, to let the Russians take Berlin. He’s not happy about it, but Chotvacs and his fellow solders just stay at camp for months, watching over the German prisoners they’d captured.
It was a long time since Normandy, where Chotvacs came ashore. He’s seen dead civilians, soldiers, even dead children; he was nearly killed himself when a piece of shrapnel tore through his sleeping bag while he slept.
There are memories he’s likely to keep with him, though, of buddies he fought with, of seeing Europe, of feelings of fear and exhilaration and awe. He fondly recalls that Christmas Day when the GIs shared their only candy bars with children hiding from the German bombs.
“I knew we’d be shipped out of Europe pretty soon and be sent to invade Japan,” Chotvacs says on a Washington, D.C., morning from a wheelchair inside the huge World War II Memorial. “Then we heard about the atomic bomb being dropped, and then the war was over. You can’t believe how happy everyone was.”
» » »
» AUG. 6, 1945: Annie May Pierce, a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency service) from Greeley, is excited about the coming end to the war. She heard on the radio today about the bomb they dropped on Hiroshima and she hurried across town to where she was sure there would be excited crowds — in front of the White House in Washington.
“I thought there would be a lot going on,” she says now, standing near the South Pacific end of the World War II Memorial. “But there wasn’t anything going on. Nobody was around. It was very strange.” Nine days later, Washington and the entire country would celebrate the end of the war.
On this same day 64 years ago, Annie May’s husband, Lowel Pierce, is on a Navy LST landing ship on the Atlantic Ocean. There is talk of an invasion of Japan. But a few days later, by the time they reach Panama, the war has ended. “I don’t know if we celebrated very much on ship,” Lowel Pierce said “But everybody was really glad it was finally over.”
» » »
» AUG. 14, 1945: It’s a day earlier here in San Francisco than in Japan, where the surrender just took place, and Jean Anderson is excited. She’s a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency service) in the Navy and her parents are still a little surprised that she enlisted. Her job during this war is to help clear all messages from ships and from shore and to keep them confidential.
“We could hear the cheering outside when they announced the war was over,” Anderson says today, standing in the rain in Washington, in front of the monument. “They told us not to go outside during the celebration, because it wasn’t safe for young women out there.”
After the war, Anderson would find a home in Greeley.
» » »
» AUG. 15, 1945: Warren Wille is the pilot of a B-29, dropping bombs on islands in the South Pacific. In recent days, there were bombing raids over Japan, and every GI knew a ground invasion of Japan was coming.
“We were on the airstrip waiting to take off,” Wille, now a Windsor resident, says while standing near the fountain of the WWII Memorial “We were just dropping leaflets this time, telling the Japanese people to surrender before the invasion.”
Sixty-four years ago, a Jeep swings madly down the air strip and pulls up beside Wille’s B-29. “It’s over!” someone shouts from the Jeep. The war was over.
“We just started celebrating like crazy,” Wille says today. “If they hadn’t given up, we would have had to invade.”
» » »
It rained while the veterans were in D.C. Not hard, like they saw in the South Pacific and not as cold as the Battle of the Bulge a lifetime ago, but a gentle, springlike gray rain. It probably kept some of the crowds away, so the veterans from northern Colorado had much of the memorial to themselves, which was a good thing.
They visited the World War II Memorial that day, but also stopped at the statue of Iwo Jima, the Vietnam Wall and the Korean War Memorial. Through the day, people who noticed their “World War II Veteran” hats stopped and thanked them. Sailors pushed their wheelchairs, soldiers saluted them.
At the Vietnam Wall, a group of junior high girls from Chattanooga asked if they could stand beside the vets for photos.
The girls said they wanted to have their picture taken with a real hero.
About the memorial
The World War II Memorial is located on the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
According to Washington, D.C., information, the Washington Monument represents the most important event in the United States in the 1700s; the Lincoln Memorial represents the most important event of the 1800s; and the World War II Memorial represents the most important of the 1900s.
Nearby war memorials include the Vietnam Wall and the Korean Memorial.
» $175 million: The amount of money donated to build the memorial, headed by former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. Most of the costs came from private funding.
» 8: Bronze eagles with laurel wreaths throughout the memorial. Each eagle weighs 20,000 pounds.
» 384: Number of feet the memorial spans — longer than a football field and almost twice as wide.
» 56: Number of pillars around the memorial — one for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.
» 16 million: Number of Americans who served in World War II. More than 400,000 Americans died.
» 14,000: Number of World War II veterans now living in Weld and Larimer counties
» 1,100: World War II veterans who die every day across the United States.
Quotable
For two days, the 130 World War II vets and their guardians were almost overwhelmed by the attention and memories from six decades past. This is what some of them had to say: » » » “I remember we each had a big chocolate bar that our officers told us that we had to save until we were three days without food, and we’d eat it in an emergency. It was Christmas 1944, and we were camped in an area where they’d evacuated the children of London during the bombing raids. The kids were so sad about Christmas, and one of our guys gave a kid his chocolate bar. Pretty soon, we all dug them out of our packs for the kids. It was my most memorable Christmas.” Al Chotvacs, Greeley » » » “They clapped and parted the aisles for us, just like we were really something!” Andy Anderson, Greeley, after arrival at Baltimore airport and loud applause from people in the terminal » » » “Of all the deserving charities in northern Colorado, the Honor Flight is so important because we’re running out of heroes to honor. We need to get these guys to D.C. before they’re gone, so they can see what was done for them.” Martin Lind of Water Valley in Windsor. Lind, one of the main contributors and supporters of the Honor Flight, and his wife and two children worked as guardians on the April flight. » » » “Tonight, I’m in the company of the very best our country has to offer. At the same time, my heroes are also our sons and daughters who are standing point for us around the world — looking evil in the eye and not blinking. And years ago, when our freedom hung in the balance, when our backs were to the wall, it was you — the World War II heroes — who also stepped forward. I want to thank you for our freedom today.” Lt. Gen. James L Campbell, Pentagon, at the banquet for the World War II vets » » » “It was kind of a crispy ride down here, but it was worth it. Those vets kept thanking us for the escort, but actually, we’re here to thank them.” Pat McDonnell, Eaton, a member of the Patriot Guard Motorcycle Club who escorted the vets’ buses from the Budweiser Center to Denver. » » » “I don’t think there will ever be another time like that. The entire country fought that war. The GIs were overseas, the folks back home were sacrificing everything they could for the war effort. The country will never come together like that again.” Rex Hester, Greeley, former Greeley Central High School principal and Iwo Jima veteran
Video
http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090510/NEWS/905079958/-1/rss02&template=printart
Ellie