Four Nodaway County veterans have unexpected adventure in DC

Four Nodaway County veterans participated in the September 25 Honor Flight to Washington, DC.

The flight creates a special day honoring those who have served our country. Usually, the flight leaves early in the morning, flies to Washington DC and returns the evening of the same day-not this time. The return took a little longer than anticipated.

Each veteran is assigned a companion for the day who takes them to the airport, wheels them in a wheelchair if needed and attends to their needs throughout the day. The veterans and guardians were John Myers, Kila Henry; Robert Westfall, son, Richard Westfall; Jim Waldeier, son, Heath Waldeier and Richard Strauch, son, Kurt Strauch. On board the flight is a doctor, nurses and several VA personnel to give the veterans and their families peace of mind. The veterans were provided with breakfast, lunch and snacks and took a bus tour of Washington.

This September flight left Kansas City early allowing for a full day of sight-seeing. Some of the places participants visited included the World War II Memorial, Korean Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, Air Force Memorial, Navy Memorial, Marine Memorial, Pentagon Memorial and the FDR Memorial. They were able to visit all of these sights in one day because the four large tour buses had motorcycle escort for the afternoon which meant that they did not stop at stop signs or stop lights. Traffic stopped and let them pass or moved out of their lane to let them through. The only person who can stop an Honor Flight is the US president.

Near the Vietnam Memorial veterans read the names of fallen Vietnam soldiers that they knew and there was a playing of taps. Veterans who submitted the names of fallen soldiers had them

found on the wall. Each veteran that submitted a name or names received paper to make a tracing of the name. A wreath was also laid at the Vietnam Wall.

At Arlington Cemetery, the veterans watched the changing of the guard and Heartland Honor Flight laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There are over 400,000 soldiers buried in the 639 acres of Arlington Cemetery.

After visiting the FDR Memorial, it was time to go back to the airport to prepare for the flight home. At the airport the veterans ate supper and then started to board the plane. Soon, it became obvious that there was trouble as they were told to stop loading. Apparently, there was something wrong with the plane and the pilot needed to reboot the system. After the reboot, some parts of the system were not checking out. The pilot tried everything and so a mechanic was called. The veterans on the plane were getting warm as the auxiliary air was not able to keep up. The veterans were told to go back into the airport so that they could cool down.

Most airport mechanics are not near the gate, so they had to wait for them to get to the plane. After extensive checking it was decided by the mechanic and pilot that the plane had not been successfully tested. As the flight was a charter flight, there was no other plane. It was also discovered that there would be no charter flight leaving Reagan National Airport the next day. So here they were stuck in DC with no plane, no room and no way of going anywhere. It was now about midnight.

When traveling with 90 veterans and their guardians along with a staff of 20 or so the number grows to over 200 fairly quickly. Where do you put this many people and keep them in one place, so that you can get them assembled again the next morning? The answer is that you need a large hotel.

The Gaylord Convention and Resort is where the veterans were given rooms. Veterans and guardians were asked if they had an Uber or Lyft app on their phone. If they did, they were to call for a car and when it arrived, get as many people in it as it could accommodate and go to the hotel. This did not take long. At the hotel, personal guardians stayed with their veteran as they were family. The veterans with volunteer guardians were paired up and given a room. Even though the rooms had king beds, each veteran had their own bed. The next morning veterans chose their own breakfast and charged it to their room. Then they grouped up for getting on the buses which would take them to Washington Dulles International Airport where they would be shuttled to their charter flight back home.

The veterans arrived in Kansas City around 12:30 pm where each veteran was given a sign with their name and branch of service on it. The guardian held the sign, as the veteran came to the baggage claim area where an honor guard welcomed them individually and then family and friends gave them the welcome that they missed upon their original return home.

What started as a one day out and back became a two-day event. Hopefully the treatment that the veterans received during the trying time showed them that we respect and value them.

The Northwest Missouri liaison is Kila Henry. She advises veterans who might be interested in the trip go on the heartlandhonorflight.org website for an application. After filling it out, it can be mailed to Henry at PO Box 186, Ravenwood, MO 64479.