‘THIS IS THE FAREWELL’

80 fly to D.C. on last Honor Flight

Paul Bonner (left) chats with Jerry Davis as they wait with Fred Pflederer (right) and other Arkansas veterans for group photos Saturday at the World War II Memorial in Washington.
Paul Bonner (left) chats with Jerry Davis as they wait with Fred Pflederer (right) and other Arkansas veterans for group photos Saturday at the World War II Memorial in Washington.

WASHINGTON - More than 80 elderly Arkansas veterans who served in one of history’s deadliest global conflicts visited the National World War II Memorial on Saturday. They are the last large group of Arkansans scheduled for Honor Flights to see the monument.

In the past five years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tysons Foods have organized 11 Honor Flights, flying more than 900 Arkansans to Washington to see the memorial.

But, the state’s number of World War II veterans has declined so much, and so many of those still alive have already made the trip, that the Arkansas flights are being discontinued, said Bill McKenzie, director of the state’s Honor Flight hub.

The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department estimated in September 2013 that Arkansas has 12,333 World War II veterans.

McKenzie said Arkansas World War II veterans who haven’t yet made the trip, but want to, will be referred to Honor Flight hubs in other states. Not every eligible veteran has heard about the flights, he said.

“I’m sure they will call,” he said.

Dedicated in 2004, the memorial was completed 59 years after the war ended. It sits between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall.

Honor Flights started in Ohio in 2007 to take elderly veterans to the memorial. Commercial jets are chartered to fly them and their caregivers free of charge.

Saturday’s flight day was a whirlwind. The veterans flew from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill to Washington, D.C., early Saturday morning. They went straight to the memorial and had an hour to spend there.

As they entered the amphitheater-style memorial, dozens of volunteers applauded, cheered and waved American flags. Young soldiers stood at attention saluting as the veterans passed by, and small children moved through the crowd shaking hands and thanking the older men and women for their service. Former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, himself a World War II veteran, sat on a stool at the front of the line and spoke to the veterans as they passed by.

John H. Allen, 90, of Bella Vista said the welcome touched him.

“It was the most moving thing I think I’ve ever experienced. I had to weep,” he said. “It was wonderful, wonderful. I’m glad I lived this long. These people could be playing golf or doing something else, but they’re out here to welcome a bunch of old men, and I was touched deeply.”

Normally, Honor Flight volunteers are on hand for ceremonial send-offs when veterans leave their home states, for welcomes when they reach Washington and again when they arrive back home.

Allen, who was an Air Force captain and flew fighter planes in Italy during the war, said he thinks he was so struck by the experience because it is the last Honor Flight.

“This is the farewell,” he said. “I’m a stoic, but I couldn’t handle it.”

Jack Williams, 93, of Rogers said he didn’t expect such a reception.

Williams said he was waiting to go to church on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed.

“I never made it to church. I saw a plane come zooming right by my head, and it dropped a torpedo and it went directly into the [USS] Arizona, and I saw the Arizona sink and it was terrible,” Williams said.

The monument was overdue, he said.

“It should have happened a long time ago. There’s too many years in between; it should have been the first memorial not the last, but at least they got it now,” Williams said.

Theresa Moore, 91, of Fayetteville, who was a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Nurses Corp., said she was hesitant to join the flight at first.

“I don’t think I was out in the battlefield like the rest of the veterans were,” Moore said.

The crowd welcomed her enthusiastically, calming her reservations. When Moore walked down the entrance way, a group of soldiers stepped forward and saluted her, and a child grabbed her hand.

“A little bitty one came up and shook my hand, I thought that was great,” she said. “There’s not too many World War II veterans left, we’re all getting up in years.”

At the memorial, veterans lined up at a pillar inscribed with the state’s name to have their picture taken. They stared into the fountains and even called the Hogs. Tourists stopped to shake their hands.

Ret. Air Force Cpl. Ray Hostetler, 88, of Bella Vista said he was overwhelmed by the monument’s wall of gold stars. Each of the 4,048 gold stars represents 100 American military deaths during the war.

“I know what they mean.That saddens me,” Hostetler said. “It’s a reminder. What I went through, I don’t want anyone to face that again, and so I’m here in respect to the people that didn’t have the life I led. They were cut short on it, and I have to remember that.”

Afterward, the veterans took a bus tour of Washington, D.C., while eating boxed lunches. They also visited the Korean, Vietnam and Iwo Jima war memorials before returning to the airport. They were scheduled to land in Northwest Arkansas by 8:30 p.m., McKenzie said.

“It’s a long day for them, but they manage to get through it, and it’s easier to do in one day,” he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/04/2014

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