Honor flights salute veterans

WASHINGTON – Mel Dickens, 84, got choked up with emotion Wednesday as the bus pulled toward the National World War II Memorial.

The WWII Army corporal from Raleigh, N.C., got off the bus and strode through the plaza punctuated by granite pillars hung with bronze wreaths.

He took a moment to reflect on the 4,048 gold stars that line the west side of the memorial, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war. He stopped to take a photo at the reflecting pool and gazed at the fountain with the Washington Monument towering behind it.

“This is amazing,” he said. “I don’t usually get emotional like this.”

Dickens was among a group of 120 World War II veterans who flew aboard the last “honor flight” to Washington from the military-heavy state of North Carolina. The free trips, organized over the past several years, honor thousands of members of the so-called Greatest Generation, and include visits to several other monuments. The trips are beginning to dwindle as time runs out on WWII veterans who are still healthy enough to travel.

“Our goal was to get as many WWII veterans here as we could,” Triangle Flight of Honor director Sunny Johnson said. “This is the last flight for North Carolina. The biggest reason is that we’re running out of veterans who have either not flown or are healthy enough to take a full day – it’s about a 14-hour day – in Washington.”

Triangle Flight of Honor is separate from the well-known national organization Honor Flight Network. That group, which flies out of Charlotte, N.C., already has ended its World War II trips from North Carolina.

A retired Air Force captain and physician assistant, realizing that many of his patients were running out of time to visit the memorial, started the honor flights in 2005 in Ohio. Since then, honor flight organizations have flown more than 81,300 veterans to Washington.

Of the more than 16 million Americans who served during World War II, fewer than 2 million are alive today. Estimates are that this generation is dying off at a rate of 1,000 a day.

It took 60 years after World War II ended for the memorial to be built, and many of the war’s veterans have never seen it. The trip is a chance for veterans such as Rene Butler of Charlotte, 90, to share a day with other veterans, trade stories and finally see the memorial built in their honor.

Many also are getting the welcome-home celebrations they never received. Butler, a former Air Force pilot, said the only one who had greeted him in 1945 after he had served two years escorting bombers was the Statue of Liberty.

On Wednesday, he and the other veterans were welcomed to Washington by a 50-member barbershop-style chorus singing patriotic songs and hundreds of supporters who wanted to shake their hands, including Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. David Price, D-N.C.

“Everyone is thanking me,” Butler said. “I want to thank everyone else. I can’t believe what everyone is doing for us. “

The handshakes, pats on the back and thank yous continued throughout the day as the group came into contact with more people at the Iwo Jima Memorial, the U.S. Air Force Memorial and Arlington National Ceremony.

Hailey Ward, 12, asked Dickens and former Staff Sgt. Bob Hendrix, 89, whether she and some of her friends could have their photo taken with them.

“I just thought it was important to introduce myself so they know we appreciate what they did,” said Ward, who was visiting from Coeur d’Alene. “I want them to feel special.”