More than a dozen metro-east veterans honored on flight to nation’s capital
More than a dozen veterans from the metro-east landed at St. Louis’s Lambert Airport on their return journey from Washington, D.C.
The trip was part of the 113th Greater St. Louis Honor Flights, a nonprofit that books flights for veterans and a guardian of their choice and flies them from their home airport to the capitol at no cost.
Any veteran can participate, though it’s most common to see veterans from the Vietnam and Korean War.
This flight, which touched down at Lambert Wednesday, included 62 Vietnam veterans and three who served in Korea. Fifteen reside in the metro-east.
As veterans depart, they are first greeted by members of the nonprofit, Boy Scouts and cheerleaders from the St. Louis Blues. From there, they line up and traverse the airport while members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police play drums and bag pipes until they are finally reunited with their families, friends and old service buddies.
The nonprofit is run entirely by volunteers, and many have been doing it for years. Boy scouts, family members and even cheerleaders from the St. Louis Blues come to greet them as they step from the terminal and make the long trek back to the airport’s entrance.
“I’ve been doing these for six years just to give back to the previous generation,” said Terry Wells, a first sergeant in the Army who volunteers at the event. “It’s a good way to honor their service. It’s a good way to keep them in the public view while they’re still here.”
The organization was founded in 2008 by Harry Hope, a 91-year-old Korean War veteran. Hope hands out Tootsie Rolls to returning veterans and their families, an homage to when a radio reporter misunderstood his unit’s desperate request for ammunition — what the Marines at the time referred to as “tootsie rolls,” during the battle of the Chosin Reservoir.
“I found out that groups of veterans were flying to D.C. and thought to myself, ‘why don’t we start one here (in St. Louis)?” Hope recalled.
“The first group was 25 people. Next one we had about 28. Now there’s around 60 per flight.”
Included from the metro-east were:
- Chip Braatz, a Navy veteran from Bunker Hill
- Dave Brueggemann, an Army veteran from Smithton
- Ed Campbell, an Army veteran from Highland
- Rick Carney, an Army veteran from Granite City
- Cameron Cook, a Navy veteran from Columbia
- Bob Dintelmann, an Army veteran from Belleville
- Bob Dunham, a Navy veteran from Highland
- Mark Everett, an Army veteran from Swansea
- Paul Kueker, an Air Force and Navy veteran from Swansea
- Dillard London, an Air Force veteran from Collinsville
- John Love, an Army veteran from Columbia
- Roy McCain, a Marine Corps veteran from Fairivew Heights
- Don Pearson, a Navy veteran from Dorsey
- Dave Phillip, an Army veteran from Belleville
- Larry Robison, an Air Force veteran from Summerfield
- Gary Ruskaup, an Army veteran from Columbia
- Wayne Spires, a Marine veteran from Granite City
- Bill Thompson Sr., a Navy veteran from Alton
- Louis Valdes, an Army Veteran from Wood River
