Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Metro-east veterans visit WWII memorial; N-D photographer blogs from site

Most of the leaves had fallen.

It was raining slightly as the World War II veterans from Southern Illinois arrived at the National Mall about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. It began to rain even more.

It is Veterans Day and they viewed the tribute to their service, the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. They took a group photo at the memorial. Then they received two surprises.

U.S. Sen. Bob Dole was at the memorial and greeted members of the Southern Illinois group. Dole led the effort to build the World War II Memorial. He is one of them, being wounded by German machine gun fire and losing use of his right arm while a second lieutenant with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy.

The other surprise was an invitation to the U.S. Navy Memorial for the service there. It cut short the stay at the World War II Memorial but then the rain was driving many of the vets back to the buses anyway.

It was quiet as the veterans entered Arlington National Cemetery. Past the rows of white markers they went to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The rain was steady.

The day started before dawn as buses left Effingham at 3 a.m., picking up more of the veterans in their 80s in Greenville and Edwardsville. They flew from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., to see the tributes to their service — the World War II Memorial, The U.S. Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

It is part of the Honor Flight program, taking veterans to see the memorials at no cost to them. The most important part of the day, especially on Veterans Day, is the trip is a chance to tell them "thank you."

Crowds greeted the vets at Baltimore Washington International, clapping, cheering and saying "thank you." Many of those greeters were former or current military.

They left Washington, D.C., and boarded the flights for home at about 6:30 p.m. They still had a long way to go, plus a mail call at the end with letters from grateful school children and others. Their beds were still a long way away as they lifted off from the wet runway.

The local World War II veterans are being accompanied by News-Democrat photographer Derik Holtmann, who is blogging and taking photos as the day unfolds.

Find more about the Honor Flights and see the stories from the "Our War" series here.