38th Quad City Honor Flight takes off

By Staff Sgt. Ian M. Kummer, First Army Public AffairsNovember 3, 2016

38th Quad City Honor Flight takes off
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38th Quad City Honor Flight takes off
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MOLINE, Ill. -- At first glance, this may have seemed like a typical morning at the airport. Passengers escaped the brisk Midwestern morning chill, lining up at check-in counters to begin their journeys.

But, amidst this early morning bustle, a growing congregation of people formed in the terminal. Men and women, young and old, adorned in bright yellow and blue jackets. Many were wearing veteran ball caps -- a shared badge of honor for a thousand different stories.

This was the 38th Honor Flight of the Quad Cities, which took off from the Quad City International Airport Oct. 27, 2016.

Honor Flight of the Quad Cities is a chapter of the Honor Flight Network, an organization dedicated to flying veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars to visit memorials dedicated to them in Washington, D.C.

This flight -- the chapter's fourth and final one in 2016 -- honored approximately 95 veterans, including two WWII veterans, four Korean War veterans, four veterans in hospice care, and Vietnam veterans. Sixty-five volunteers known as "guardians" accompanied the veterans for companionship and to provide assistance as needed throughout the day's busy journey.

Galesburg, Illinois, resident Rodney Wilson, a Navy Vietnam veteran, hadn't set foot in an airplane since 1968. For him, the honor flight brought closure to his war experience from decades ago.

"They should have had these back in the '60s," Wilson said. "We'd come back, and no one would speak to us … when we flew back to San Francisco; we were told not to wear our uniforms. But, back then, we were the only ones with short hair, so people still recognized us [as military]."

Like the millions of other men and women who have served their country in the armed forces, Wilson found himself changed forever by his military experience.

"I was 18 years old, never been out of Illinois," he said.

He trained in various places around the country, including California and Hawaii, and served in Vietnam twice, as a mechanic aboard a gasoline tanker. Gasoline tankers frequented river supply routes, providing fuel to Army and Marine units in the field.

Steve Garrington, a retired lieutenant colonel who served in the Army from 1970 to 1999, serves as the Honor Flight's hub commander and is responsible for the complexities of bringing hundreds of people together for flights across the country.

Garrington emphasized the importance of the Honor Flight's mission.

"Most people don't know this, but the World War II Memorial [in Washington, D.C.] wasn't finished until 2004," he said. "By then, many WWII veterans were unable to come and see it on their own."

In 2005, the first Honor Flight took place. Six small planes flew 12 World War II veterans from Springfield, Ohio, to see the newly finished memorial at the nation's capital. In the following years, more Honor Flight chapters sprang up across the country, eventually opening up flights to veterans from the Korean War and Vietnam War, as well.

In 2008, veterans and family members in Iowa and Illinois formed the Quad City Honor Flight chapter.

Capt. Ana Bartholo, a nurse practitioner with the U.S. Army Health Clinic Rock Island Arsenal, attended the send-off celebration for the veterans at the airport.

"Two days ago I was in the commissary and this guy walks up to me and asks if I'm going to be there on Thursday," Bartholo said. "It sounded great … it was just one of those things you can't say no to."

"New" Soldiers such as Bartholo gave the "old school" veterans new faces to swap stories with.

Ray Fairbank, a former Army Air Corps weather technician from rural Montana, beamed with excitement as he talked about his involvement in the flight trials leading to Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in 1947.

"We had to give [Yeager] the weather conditions before he got in the plane," Fairbank said. "Before every flight we used a weather balloon up at 30,000 feet."

The Honor Flight guardians also appreciated listening to and learning from their predecessors. Lt. Col. Arthur McGrue, executive officer for First Army Headquarters at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, has participated in three out of four honor flights in the past year and attends as many as he can.

"This gave me the opportunity to intermingle with veterans of yesteryear's wars," McGrue said. "They essentially paved the way for me and shared their ideas."

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