Free flights bring aging WWII vets to their memorial
More than 1,200 veterans die every day before they get the chance to see the monument in their honor in Washington. Many, such as my dad, Wilson Constable, died before the National World War II Memorial opened in 2004.
Those facts hit home with Read Boeckel of Glen Ellyn when he saw a national TV report about an Ohio-based charity called Honor Flight, which flies veterans free to see the monument. It was founded in 2005 by retired Air Force Capt. Earl Morse.
"I'm telling you, I'm crying like a baby watching it," says Boeckel, a 59-year-old Marine.
So, he called the charity.
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"Look, my dad is 85, and I want to take him to Washington. What do I do?" Boeckel asked.
His involvement led him to become a board member of the new Honor Flight Chicago, which is planning to make its inaugural flight on June 11 with 99 people on board.
"Our goal is to get three flights out this year. We need to fundraise to make that happen," says Jeanmarie Kapp of Barrington, who founded the local chapter and serves as president. She and her mother, Nancy Kapp, who also is on the board, got the local chapter going and donated $10,000 through their real estate business, The Renaissance Cos. American Family Insurance and Chicago AMVETS Post 18 also donated $10,000 each.
Veterans pay nothing for the flight, meals and bus trips to the monument, and Kapp figures each trip costs at least $300 per veteran.
Today is when she plans to start telling those local veterans chosen to take the first Honor Flight Chicago trip.
"We have to start contacting them because they don't know it yet," Kapp says. It's first-come, first-served, except for those who can't wait.
"A terminally ill vet of any conflict, he gets moved up to the list."
Veterans on that first flight generally are in their 80s and hail from Arlington Heights, Wheaton, McHenry and points beyond, Kapp says, noting Illinois needs more Honor Flight hubs.
"Veterans do not pay a single dime for this," Kapp notes. "This is our gift to them. They have given enough."
Able-bodied guardians (often the sons and daughters of veterans) pay their own way and help veterans throughout the daylong trip. Accommodations are made for veterans who require wheelchairs, oxygen or other medical equipment.
Boeckel will accompany his father, Paul, who was an Army Air Corps radio operator in the Philippines during the war. Paul Boeckel lives with his wife, Bette, in Buffalo, N.Y., and will be on the June 7 inaugural flight from there.
"You'd better believe I'd like to go," says the retired salesman, who lost the use of one arm because of polio after the war but has no problem getting around.
Most veterans can't wait.
"We're in 62 cities and expanding daily. It's spreading by word of mouth," says Margaret Morse, mother of the founder and office manager for the charity's national headquarters. The charity has flown 5,000 veterans so far and hopes to double that figure this year.
To sign up a veteran, volunteer as a guardian or make a tax-deductible donation to the charity visit the Web site at honorflightchicago.org or phone (773) 227-VETS (8387). Watch the 11-minute video of veterans making the trip to see their monument, and you'll find your eyes tearing up, Boeckel predicts.
You can reach the national headquarters at www.honorflight.org (type in .com and you'll get links that charge for tickets) or phone (937) 521-2400.