Tag Archives: world war 2

A marvelous, fabulous journey

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When a reporter has a hard time putting into words the personal thoughts, emotions and experiences of Honor Flight, it sort of puts into perspective what this trip means to those of us lucky to have accompanied World War II veterans toWashington,D.C., to view their memorial.

Even now, two days after returning from the journey, I get a lump in my throat when I think about all of the wonderful men and women I’ve met on the trio of flights I was so fortunate to be a part of.

Before the tears completely take over and I can no longer see my keyboard, I want to express my sympathy to the family of Bud Meyers, of Windom. Bud was one of the World War II heroes I interviewed prior to this final flight, and he was so looking forward to the trip. He died last Wednesday morning, and the news cast a pall on my pre-flight preparations. I felt like I’d been sucker-punched.

I didn’t know Bud like his family or friends knew him, certainly. I spent an hour — maybe two — listening to his harrowing stories of war. He landed onIwo, delivered soldiers to shore for the invasion ofOkinawaand survived a virtual kamikaze attack on land armed only with a carbine rifle and a 20-shot clip.

After all of those stories, you know what he said to me?

“It was a very interesting part of my life.”

That quote alone says a lot about the men and women who sacrificed so much so future generations could live in the land of the free.Americatruly is the home of the brave.

On Monday, I spent much of my time talking to members of the Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota committee, asking for their final thoughts — their most cherished memories — about the four flights and the 435 World War II veterans with whom they shared this journey.

That story, along with several others, will be included in a special Honor Flight edition that prints with this Saturday’s Daily Globe.

 As I ponder writing that special piece, I’d like to share with you my most cherished memory of this entire Honor Flight experience.

It began with a request from my publisher to attend a meeting of an Honor Flight committee that was forming. We traveled to Luverne on Dec. 15, 2009, to listen in on discussions about how we could raise money to take our World War II veterans toWashington,D.C., to view their memorial.

Joni and I left the meeting that night committed to publishing a feature story on a World War II veteran in our paper every week, starting on Dec. 24, and continuing until we had enough money raised for the trip.

Nineteen weeks — 19 World War II stories — later, we were in the air and bound for our nation’s capital city. I wrote all but one of the stories leading up to that first flight and had an amazing experience just visiting with veterans who are too humble to call themselves heroes. Between flights two, three and four, the Daily Globe published another 30 pre-flight feature stories on our World War II veterans. Two years, 49 feature stories and not a one of the stories we heard was the same.

It just goes to show that everyone truly does have a story to tell.

There is a sign I hung just above the doorway in my home that reads, “Home is where the story begins.”

When I bought it, I thought it was neat because I prefer to write from home, in the quiet solitude of my makeshift office.

Now, it has a different meaning — actually, a reminder — to always take the time to sit and listen to the stories of our greatest generation before they are lost forever.

All of the Honor Flight veterans will understand when I say this experience opened them up to actually talk about what they saw, what they did and how they endured the events of a world at war. I can’t recall how many times families of featured veterans came up to me after a story was in print and said, “I didn’t know that about dad,” or “He’s never shared that with me during all the years we’ve been married.”

Well, now is your chance to listen to those stories. There is no time like the present.

People have said I’m lucky to have been able to experience three journeys with Honor Flight. No one knows that more than me, and I can’t thank the Honor Flight committee enough for allowing me to be a part of such a wonderful project.

Most of all, I want to issue a thanks and a challenge to all of you. Thanks for your donations to Honor Flight, thanks for taking a Deep Freeze Dip or buying a button, thanks to the sponsors, the guardians, the medical staff and everyone else who helped in any way to make this dream come true for the 435 World War II veterans who traveled with us.

As for the challenge — please, please take the time to visit with these people. Ask them to share their stories with you — and be prepared to get lessons in geography and history — there’s nothing better than hearing stories from those who were there.

I will forever cherish the one-on-one, in-home interviews I conducted with these veterans. I can say, without a doubt, it was the highlight of my life.

To our heroes: Welcome home

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As I was driving back to Worthington Friday afternoon, I began to reflect on the six welcome home ceremonies I’ve witnessed and covered during the past seven years as a Daily Globe reporter.

Six homecoming celebrations … two very different reasons.

Four of the welcome home events have been for our present day heroes — the soldiers who have committed a year or more of their life to serve in the desert sands of Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

The other two celebrations I’ve been present for were the return of our World War II heroes following their Honor Flight journey to Washington, D.C., to view their memorial.

On one hand, I’ve seen young wives eager to hug, kiss and hold their modern day heroes, and on the other, I’ve seen middle-aged “kids” bursting with pride as their mom or dad finally experienced the kind of welcome home they deserved some 66 years ago at the end of World War II.

One group of veterans is young, full of life and proud to have served their country. The other group, wrinkled and loveable, has a youthful attitude that makes me smile and wish other generations of people could be as sweet and sincere as them. The American pride shown by the veterans of our greatest generation is immeasurable, and the same is true for the newly christened veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Whether young, old or somewhere in between, all veterans deserve our thanks. It’s because of them we can begin to understand what true sacrifice is. It’s because of them we place our hand over our heart at the singing of the National Anthem and feel the pride deep in our soul. It’s because of them that we enjoy the freedoms we have today.

Next week, Daily Globe readers will again be able to read about those sacrifices our men and women of World War II made in serving our country.

There are just nine weeks until the fourth and final Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota participants embark on their journey.

Globe staffer Aaron Hagen and I are honored to once again be making the flight to interview and photograph our World War II heroes on this trip of a lifetime.

I’ve often said in the last year and a half that interviewing our region’s World War II veterans has been a greater history lesson for me than anything that could have been taught in the classroom.

My one-on-one visits with these men and women have been the greatest joy of my journalism career. I hope the stories give our readers a true picture of the sacrifices these heroes made. Without their efforts, our latest heroes might not be saluting the beautiful red, white and blue.

The excitement, anticipation builds

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I had intended to write a few online blogs this week about my recent experiences in Washington, D.C., but aside from sharing a story and several photos of the cherry blossoms, I simply ran out of time and energy.

My sleep schedule is still out of whack, and I feel like a little old lady when I’ve crawled into bed by 8:30 p.m. a few days this week. On the flip side, I’m wide awake at 5:30 in the morning, and I’ve discovered I can be productive at that horrible hour despite sitting in front of my home computer in my PJ’s.

Now that you have a mental picture of my disheveled morning appearance, please erase it for your own well-being!

While I may get around to writing more about the D.C. experience sooner or later, I want to share with you my most treasured experience of the trip. It wasn’t even on our itinerary — it just presented itself out of the blue … at the airport, no less.

The 20-plus U-Lead participants had gathered at Gate 1 at Reagan National Airport for our Thursday morning departure last week when, over the loudspeaker, it was announced that an Honor Flight had just landed and a plane filled with World War II veterans was about to be unloaded at our gate.

I was so excited I hurried to a spot toward the front of the welcome line, and joined the “D.C. Honor Flight Crew” in cheering on the arrival of a group of men and women from the Appleton and Green Bay areas of Wisconsin.

At the sight of that first veteran coming off the jetway at Gate 1, I began to clap and the tears started to roll down my cheeks … it’s a woman thing!

One by one, the veterans — many of them with a look of disbelief on their faces — looked at the gathering of cheering people. Many of them smiled, some were moved to tears and others, well, I think they still may have been in a state of shock by the time they boarded their buses to depart on the trip to view their World War II Memorial.

I shook each veteran’s hand, thanked him or her for serving our country and gave into hugs for those men with their open arms. One man slipped in a kiss on my neck. If he did that to every woman who gave him a hug on his Honor Flight excursion, I would imagine he returned home as one happy man.

At one point during the welcome, a fellow U-Lead participant turned to me and asked why I wasn’t taking pictures. My response was quick … this is my vacation. On the inaugural flight, and on the third flight I’m traveling with in just two weeks, I’ll be so busy snapping photos and getting quotes that I won’t be able to simply enjoy the looks on the faces of the veterans as they are cheered, thanked and celebrated.

Daily Globe sports editor Aaron Hagen will be the official photographer on this next journey, and I will be toting a notebook, audio recorder, camera and laptop to chronicle the trip for the 110 World War II veterans we will travel with.

I have just two more veteran features to write before this next journey, and if the wit of some of the veterans I’ve interviewed thus far is any indication, I know we all will have a fabulous time.

Double time in D.C.

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When I signed on to take part in the U-Lead Advisory Academy seven months ago, little did I know I would be traveling to our nation’s capital city, Washington, D.C., twice within the span of 25 days.

In eight days, I will be on a tour of the White House or the Capitol – that is if I haven’t taken the wrong exit off the Metro. I’m kind of worried about the Metro … definitely more worried about my first subway experience than my flight into Reagan National. (Wait a minute, wasn’t that the airport in the news last week because of its snoozing air traffic controller?)

Organizers have assured me I will learn to use the subway system well in Washington, D.C., or get lost trying (note to Mom and Dad: Don’t worry!)

All fears aside, I’m looking forward to the trip. If all goes as planned, I will meet with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Tim Walz, visit the Moroccan Embassy, spend half a day at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, stop at the National Association of Counties and see the World Bank.

Also built into our very busy schedule are agency meetings. I haven’t yet decided if I want to visit Cargill, American Farm Bureau, National Public Radio or National Geographic … I want to see them all.

Ironically, there is absolutely no time allotted to visit any of the wonderful memorials and museums in Washington, D.C.

For me, that will come at the end of April, when I travel with our World War II veterans on Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota’s third flight. Having embarked on this journey with men and women of our Greatest Generation a year ago on the inaugural flight, my excitement is starting to build once again. Oh, what a trip this will be.

I was visiting with a veteran from that first flight the other night, and when he learned I was going again, he said he wanted to go with. Honor Flight is such an amazing experience – one I think any veteran would love to do a second time. It’s even difficult for this writer to put into words just how special, how memorable, the veterans’ visit is to their World War II Memorial.

Five weeks ago I began scheduling interviews with some of the World War II heroes traveling on this next flight. Five weeks ago, I also retrieved the world globe from the upstairs of my house and made a space for it in my home office.

For me, writing the pre-flight features is like a history and geography lesson all rolled into one – and far more interesting than those I ever heard in school. And yet, nearly every veteran I’ve called for an interview has claimed he doesn’t have much of a story to tell.

“Everyone has a story,” I reply. “And I want to hear yours.”

It’s worked for me so far, though these World War II heroes are starting to wonder just what they’ve agreed to when I show up at their door with a notebook, pen, tripod, video camera and camera.

Hopefully you, our readers, have a chance to go online to www.dglobe.com and watch some of the video footage from the last four veteran features. The plan is to take some of the footage and compile it with video from the trip for a memento for our veterans.

Big dippers and the Deep Freeze Dip

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Watching two self-proclaimed fat guys slip into a wetsuit — their chosen attire for this Saturday’s Deep Freeze Dip in Worthington’s Lake Okabena — can be likened to a gut-busting comedy routine … or at least that’s what I imagined after reading an e-mail from Luverne Area Chamber Director Jane Lanphere Tuesday morning.

Jane’s husband, Larry “Lumpy” Lanphere, is well-known in these parts for his years in the radio business. Come Saturday, he might become well-known for another reason. He and fellow radioman Dan Dobson have agreed (or more aptly been railroaded) to take the plunge into the frigid waters of our local lake.

Larry Lanphere and Dan Dobson

Do you know how cold it is going to be on Saturday?

Well, right now, the forecast is for a high of 5 to 10 degrees. As event organizer Chad Cummings says, it will be “cheek-chillin’ cold outside!”

I called Larry on Tuesday to get his side of the story on the wetsuit fitting, and tried to stop giggling long enough to concentrate on my typing.

“Holy buckets — Jane had to come in and help both of us get the top part on,” Larry described. “How the hell do (women) get girdles on?”

Well, I wasn’t about to answer that question … let’s just say Larry now has a new appreciation for the work some women go through to create a smoother, shapelier appearance!

Then Larry declared, “We can’t even hardly walk in these things — we look like idiots. We thought we looked pretty good until we looked in the mirror. Holy gosh, we have lumps all over the place! We look like beached walruses, I’ll tell ya!”

As I laughed uncontrollably, he explained how he and Dan are going to arrive dressed in their wetsuits (kindly donated for the cause by Donovan’s Hobby & Scuba Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.) for the dip. I don’t know … I think I’d be willing to donate a little more just to watch these guys struggle and squirm to get into their gear!

“For two fat old guys, it’s going to be trouble,” Larry confided.

It’s all worth it — taking pledges to take the dip and helping raise the remaining $50,000 needed to send southwest Minnesota (and northwest Iowa) World War II veterans on Honor Flight.

In a second phone call to Larry’s better half, Jane said Tuesday they now have 84 applications from World War II veterans wanting to take part on the third Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota.

“We really need 150 on the list in order to fly,” said Jane. Only 110 seats are available for veterans, but they like to have a list of back-ups to draw from. The dates for the next flight are April 29-30.

“This is the time to get those veterans from Rock, Nobles, Pipestone, Murray, Cottonwood and Jackson counties — and those applications from Iowa,” she said. Applications are available from Chamber of Commerce and Veterans Service Offices across southwest Minnesota.

A quick perusal of the list shows at least 30 of the 80 applicants are from the six counties of far southwest Minnesota, with the remainder coming from just beyond — Lincoln, Lyon, Martin, Redwood and Kandiyohi counties, to name a few. Many of those veterans live in areas where the Honor Flight Network hasn’t yet, and may never, reach.

As the Daily Globe reporter on the inaugural Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota, I will say without hesitation that whatever we can do to support these heroes is well worth it — regardless of what their address is now. Traveling with them, hearing their stories and getting to know them — those were the greatest experiences I have ever had.

My money for the Deep Freeze Dip on Saturday is going to our Daily Globe dippers — copy editor Joe Froemming and sports reporter Daniel Kerwin.

Word has it that Larry needs a lot of help, though, so if you can spare some bills, he’ll gladly take them.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 59 jumpers on the Deep Freeze Dip list — including 10 from JBS who have already been guaranteed $250 a piece by the company. That’s $2,500 for Honor Flight and the jumpers are still out adding to their pledge cards!

Worthington’s District 518 and Adrian School District each have five dippers, with Worthington Christian School sponsoring two. Several local businesses are also sponsoring dippers, including GuidePoint, Hy-Vee and Worthington Taxi, to name a few.

So, come on out and watch the hilarity … it begins at 3 p.m. Saturday on the shores of Chautauqua Park in Worthington (free shuttles provided from Westminster Presbyterian Church parking lot). Cheer on the dippers, dig into your wallet and help us get the next flight of veterans to Washington, D.C., to see their memorials.