T he operation had been planned for weeks.
Organizers held a pre-mission briefing days before. Forty volunteers received regulation apparel and instructions to be in place by 5 a.m.
But many deployed before that. At 4:40 a.m. several of them — all Kansas City area veterans of World War II — stood in the lobby of Terminal A, supervising the opening of the newsstand near the U.S. Airways counter. One veteran already had visited the Cinnabon stand and was scraping together the last of the white frosting.
The flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 6 a.m., so for the 40 veterans it was just like the old days — hurry up and wait.
But this was not a problem.
The Sept. 30 Honor Flight from Kansas City International to Washington, D.C., was worth waiting for.
These 40 veterans lined up with 14 escorts for a trip to the National World War II Memorial, paid for by a local chapter of a national nonprofit group.
Several of the veterans had been awake for hours already.
“That happens a lot,” said Gary Swanson of Leawood, one of the trip’s organizers. “These veterans are in their 80s and 90s, but they get younger for this.”
Honor Flight represents a cinnamon-sweet sentiment with a sell-by date.
The nation’s surviving World War II veterans are dying at a rate of perhaps 1,000 a day, according to Department of Veterans Affairs’ estimates. Many of the approximately 2.3 million remaining, Honor Flight founders believe, still would like to visit the memorial dedicated in 2004 on the National Mall in Washington.
Yet many do not have the physical or financial ability to do that.
The reaction among the veterans who fly to Washington on Honor Flights often is profound, as it appeared to be for many of those Kansas City area veterans who returned just before 10 p.m. While a few were visibly fatigued, many more were buoyant, greeting families with beaming smiles and grinning in the face of flashing cameras.
Mission accomplished.
“It is the most noble, most honorable thing I have ever done in my life,” said Earl Morse, the Springfield, Ohio, physician’s assistant and pilot whose original efforts to fly Ohio veterans to the Washington memorial in 2005 now has evolved into the Honor Flight Network.
For some veterans, it also can be among the most exhausting.
On this trip five of the 40 veterans requested wheelchairs. Trip organizers brought 10, and by late that afternoon, all 10 had been spoken for. To keep costs down and logistics reasonable, many Honor Flights are completed in one long day. Morse, curious as to how long a walk an Honor Flight visit represented, has placed pedometers on some visiting vets.
“Four miles,” Morse said. “That’s four miles, on average, all day long, on and off the bus, walking around airports and navigating restaurants. Many of these veterans haven’t walked four miles in a long time.”
Yet, there’s a waiting list.
Reveille
The September flight was the third trip organized by Kansas City Metro Honor Flight.
Much of the planning was done by Helen Matson, volunteer coordinator for the city of Independence, and Swanson, who is especially familiar to area veterans. He now has interviewed about 960 of them as part of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Retired in 2000 from Data Systems International of Overland Park, Swanson solicits Honor Flight contributions and also collects completed applications from area veterans while conducting his interviews.
To reach Brian Burnes, call 816-234-4120 or send e-mail to bburnes@kcstar.com.
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