Thursday, August 26, 2010

There are so many people to thank for the Honor Flight I participated in on Saturday that I do not know where to start. I would appreciate your passing on my deep-felt gratitude for the honor of being on the flight to those responsible. I am sending my report on the flight.

Veterans Honor Flight -- 21 August 2010

I was fortunate enough to be selected to be a participant in the fifth and last Honor Flight sponsored by the Prattville group. It was an honor far beyond what I deserved. It was a well-oiled flight. The sponsors thought of everything. And as far as I could tell, there were no glitches. There were over 80 veterans and over 50 guardians. At the age of 89, I was 2 years under the average age of the group. There were a lot of wheel chairs and walkers.

I knew two people on the flight. Mr Erskine Grimes, a former neighbor on Whitehall St. Rev. Roy Sublette, a colleague in ministry. There was a lady from Aldersgate Church on the flight but I did not know her. I made many new friends including Bill Bates, my traveling companion. He brought Turkey Jerky from Bates turkey farm for everyone. Our Guardian was Mike Rogers, a fireman from Prattville.

We met at 5 a.m. in Prattville and were bused to Montgomery Airport for a 7:30 departure. As we entered the waiting area, a young Elementary School Student handed us a bag of snack food. The sponsors even got the school children to participate in the program. When we were on the return flight, we had “Mail Call” where we received “Thank You” letters from students.
I am glad we did not have to take our shoes off during security check. If we had, I would have discovered that I had on two left shoes. Anything can happen when you are getting dressed at 4 o’clock in the morning. If I had realized this, I would have been handicapped all day.

We arrived in Washington at 10:30 a.m. A three hour flight? It only took 1 hour on the return trip. I suppose that was because it was uphill to Washington, and downhill back to Montgomery. As we neared the terminal, we were showered with water from fire trucks standing by. The same thing happened on the return trip.

Normally, I stay on a fairly even emotional keel. However, there are two things that trigger overwhelming emotion in me. First. When I see God working in the lives of people. Second, most patriotic events. I was not prepared for the patriotic, emotional roller coaster I was to experience the rest of the day. It all started when I left the plane and entered the walkway to the terminal. Lined up on the left side of the walkway were 20 Coast Guardsmen, shaking my hand and thanking me for my service. And it was like that all day long. As we entered the terminal, we were greeted with outstretched hands and expressions of thanks from a host of strangers. There was a small combo playing patriotic music.

As we exited the terminal, there was a lone French Horn player, playing the “Service” songs. On the outside of the terminal, the same Coast Guardsmen took a position on a rise across the road, stood at attention, and saluted as the three buses left the terminal.

After we passed several sites of historical interest, we arrived at the WWII Memorial. Since I had seen most of the Memorials in Washington, I was not expecting to be impressed by this one. I visited Washington when I was about 13 years old, in 1933. I was stationed near Washington for about 2 months during WWII, and came into the city most weekends. Several years ago, Ann & I visited Washington for a week. I felt that if I entered another museum I would scream. I had not seen the WWII Memorial, The Korean Memorial, or the Iwo Jima Memorial. But having seen most of the others, I was not prepared to be impressed. How wrong I was!

There were three things that impressed me about the WWII Memorial.

1. It’s size. It was massive. It covered the full width of the National Mall, and was quite long.
2. It’s location. Somehow I gotten the impression that is was a relatively small complex in a relatively obscure place. Again I was wrong. The Mall has always been impressive to me. The Capitol at one end. The Lincoln Memorial at the other. With the Washington Monument about half way between. The WWII Memorial is just below the Washington Monument, and just above the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. You look one way and you see the Washington Monument and look the other way and see the Lincoln Memorial with the Reflecting Pool in between.
3. It’s simplicity of design to carry such a great message. The central focal point is a huge circular pool surrounded by 48 tall columns. Each column represents a state and they are arranged in the order in which they came into the Union. I had my picture taken at two of them. Mississippi & Alabama. I was living in Mississippi when I joined the Army.

At intervals in this circle of states were shorter granite walls inscribed with notable sayings by prominent people of the war era. Such as Roosevelt’s “A day that will live in infamy” speech to congress.

One of the “spokes” radiating from the pool and states columns depicts some key events of the European theater and Pacific theater. This is in the form of bronze plaques. The Atlantic Theater is on one side and the Pacific Theater on the other.

As we made our way around the circle, we were frequently greeted by strangers with a handshake and a heartfelt “Thank You.” A young teenager approached me with some questions. The first thing he asked me was what kind of weapon I carried. I told him it was a Carbine and it was not a very reliable weapon at that. I told him that I fired that weapon ten times on a firing range in England. I made 8 bulls eyes. It took me two shots to realize that I could hit the bulls eye by aiming at a mound of dirt at the lower left corner of the target.

I think he was disappointed at my answer. I think he wanted to hear some dramatic combat story. Then he asked me if I knew anyone who was killed. I told him that I did and then told him that the closest I got to combat was processing the Casualty Reports at Division Headquarters. If I disappointed him, I am sorry.

Next stop. Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean Memorial. I would have gone to the Lincoln Memorial to take a picture, but it was getting warm and I was a little tired. I wanted to take another picture like I took in 1944. It was framing the Mall between the main building of the Lincoln Memorial and the outside columns. The Washington Monument and the Capitol were in the distance. I later saw the same shot in “Life” Magazine. I would have liked to have the WWII Memorial in a new shot.

I did go to the Korean Memorial. I have always been impressed with the uniqueness of the statues in this Memorial, though I had not seen it. What I did not know about was a granite wall, smaller but similar, to the Vietnam wall. Instead of names, it had portrait like etchings in the black granite. Clear and unique.

After passing many familiar grave sections in Arlington, we arrived at the Iwo Jima Statue. Again, I did not expect to be impressed. After all, I had seen many pictures of this well known flag raising. I am now running out of adjectives. It was an enormous multi life-sized structure on a base about 10 feet high. This was different. Also, since you could walk all around it, you got a different perspective at each point.

Then, on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the “changing of the guard” which is always impressive. So many people in today’s casual and informal world would see this as useless activity, signifying nothing. And, I must admit that I often share much of this feeling. Yet this dignified, symbolic, and precise pageantry generates a warm feeling inside. It is good to know that in at least one place in this nation, the war-dead are continually honored and appreciated.

On the way back to Reagan National Airport we passed the Pentagon and the new Air Force statue that my friend, George Sparks, told me to look for. It is an interesting Memorial and hard to describe. It looks like bent propeller blades extending into the sky. The arrangement calls to memory the point in the precision planes routine that they break from the V-formation into different directions of the “wild blue yonder.”

The twenty minutes it took to taxi to our take off position gave me time to reflect on an assignment that several of my friends gave me. I was asked to straighten out the mess in Washington while I was there. A pretty big assignment for one day. But I would like to report that when we left Washington things were in good shape. Congress was not in session and the President was out of town. I take no responsibility for what happens after we left.

I had an interesting extra on the flight back to Montgomery, not planned by the flight sponsors. When I posted my acceptance for the flight, I received a message from a friend, James Bice, that Ann had taught in high school and had not seen for about 37 years. He is a flight attendant for US Airways, and said that he was going to bid for that flight. He got the flight and we had a good visit when he had discharged his duties on the way back. I think this messed up the protocol of the deplaning procedure. I had my own agenda. I knew how long it takes to unload a plane, especially with so many wheel chairs and walkers. And since I knew the plane had a short turn-around time, I wanted to get James off as soon a possible so he would have a longer visit with Ann.

When I turned the corner into the terminal, I was overwhelmed. The concourse was packed. The noise was deafening. There were about 500 service personnel of different branches, a Band from Prattville, and a host of local people. While I appreciated the strangers greeting us in Washington, this was more special. These were home folks. After shaking hands with Congressman Bobby Bright and some other dignitaries, James and I proceeded down the narrow passageway in the midst of the crowd. My family was on the left a short distance down. James stopped off there and I continued through the pressing crowd., shaking hands with as many as I could. I recognized several but missed a few that were there. I was so filled with emotion I could not speak.

I waited a while before going through the next room filled with service personnel. As the din subsided and many of the people had left, I was waiting at the stairs going to the lower level. While standing there a couple of young ladies in uniform honored me by asking if they might have their picture taken with me. As they stood by my side I put my arms around them for the picture. At that time, my granddaughter appeared with a questioning look on her face, “What’s going on here?” I replied to her query, verbal or silent, “At my age, I can get away with this!”

This brings me to the last of the special things I experienced that were not planned by the flight sponsors. My granddaughter, Christy Tennant, had arrived from Tulsa on Friday to spend the night with us. She was planning on leaving to visit friends in Auburn Saturday morning. When I called home from the WWII Memorial, I was so filled with emotion that she decided to stay until the flight returned. Moreover, she got in touch with her other grandfather, Monroe Griffith, and suggested that he meet the plane, too. Although he does not like to get in big crowds, he decided to be there.

I had talked with Monroe about the flight, knowing that he would enjoy it. However, he had experienced some traumatic episodes during WWII that he felt would keep him from making such a trip. He did have a WWII cap similar to the ones that were given to us. People in the crowd recognized him as a veteran of WWII and greeted him with a “Thank you.” I am so grateful that in spite of his limitations about going on such a flight, he was able to experience for a little while what we experienced all day.

Roy Gamblin