Local Veterans participate in honor flight

Veterans and their guardians had an early morning call at the Rochester Airport on Wednesday, Sept. 16. They were scheduled to be there by 
5 a.m. for Honor Flight Mission 4 to Washington, D.C. Eighty-seven veterans, 76 guardians and medical personnel were on the flight. Tony Boldt, KM High School band instructor, got the veterans’ attention by playing the 
5 a.m. reveille call at the airport. He was back at the KM High School for his regular band program schedule that morning.
The Honor Flight program was started in May 2005, and 339,000 veterans have taken part in the program across the country. The North Star Honor Flight program includes 10 counties in Minnesota, of which Dodge County is part of, and five Iowa counties.
Five veterans from the Kasson-Mantorville area were on the flight. In August, the veterans and guardians met near the airport for an orientation meeting to outline the trip day. Things were so well organized, starting with veterans picking up their name badges, their assigned flight seats, as well as which bus they would be riding on when visiting the monuments in D.C. Veterans just needed to show their driver’s license to verify who they were, and they skipped the line for the screening check.
For Jim Heitkamp, an Army Vietnam veteran from Kasson, it was a very special day. He really wants to thank all the volunteers, the sponsors and those that contributed to make the trip so special. A moving experience was seeing the bronze statue of the three soldiers, carrying their combat gear and looking toward the Vietnam Wall with over 58,000 U.S. soldiers’ names killed during the war. Some veterans had contacted the flight organizers earlier about a name they wanted to see on the wall. On the return flight, they received the rubbed image on a paper of that soldier’s name in a letter.
Chuck Anderson, a Navy veteran from Mantorville, said they made them feel like royalty wherever they went that day. The welcome home at the Rochester Airport was fantastic, with the large crowd, the band and color guard that greeted them. The guardians, who pay their own way, really worked hard, especially moving veterans that required using a wheelchair, getting them on and off the buses. It was a warm day, and they kept them hydrated and made sure they ate. The changing of the guard at Arlington is very moving to watch. Anderson has been a guardian on a previous Honor Flight, but he really encourages veterans to take advantage when the opportunity of a future Honor Flight is available. It was also Anderson’s 54th wedding anniversary that day.
The veterans visited memorials such as the WWII, Korean War, Marine Corps War Memorial, Navy Memorial, FDR and Martin Luther King. They also got to view other well-known memorials such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
John Hazuka, from Kasson, was the photographer on the Honor Flight. John commented on seeing the emotion shown on veterans’ faces, starting with the reception in the airport in D.C., the respect shown by the audience, people stopping to watch when the group filed past, and standing ovations for the veterans.
It was a much different reception compared with what Vietnam veterans had received when they came back to the county, as many were told to not wear their uniforms when they left the military base to return home because of the protesters.
Jeff Fague, KM seventh-grade history instructor, was along with the trip. He is a volunteer with the Honor Flight program and helped with the arrangements of the flight, a tour bus guide, and he made sure the event went as planned. Fague has led 54 school tours to D.C. through the years, including the KM school students each summer. He is very pleased as there have been other KM school volunteers helping with Honor Flights, and that is a very positive example of the staff.
His role is to make sure the veterans have a safe and enjoyable trip that they will remember for the rest of their lives. He mentioned you can’t thank a veteran enough, and they try to go the extra mile on these flights to show how much they are appreciated. Their group surprised two Korean War veterans with a special presentation by a Korean representative at the Korean War Memorial.
An exciting time for himself is when their Honor Flight committee contacts the veterans and tells them they will be going along on an upcoming flight in a couple of months. Fague is also involved with fundraising to cover the costs for future flights. Donations can be sent to North Star Honor Flight, P.O. Box 321, Adams, MN 55909.