Veterans' group finds success, but lost soul still lost
On March 4, 2008, Read Boeckel, a medical supply sales rep from Glen Ellyn, was one of about a dozen local volunteers with lofty goals and a strong will to get an idea off the ground. Inspired by a new charity in Ohio, the local group called themselves Honor Flight Chicago and vowed to treat aging veterans to a free flight to Washington, D.C., to visit the World War II Memorial.
"We knew we had a good idea," recalls Boeckel, 61, who served in the Marines. "But we had no money, no flights and no veterans."
The board of Honor Flight Chicago, which has its office in Des Plaines, hoped to charter three flights that year and make that dream come true for 300 veterans. Ask Boeckel how many flights the charity has sponsored since that day, and he hesitates.
"Isn't it wonderful that I don't know?" observes Boeckel, as he has to visit the Web site at www.honorflightchicago.org to discover the group made five sojourns in 2008, nine last year and is on track for 10 flights this year.
On its last trip of 2009, Honor Flight Chicago hosted its 1,000th veteran and then some.
In its infancy, the group put any veteran who wanted to go on the next flight. Now there is a waiting list of 1,070. The average age of the waiting veteran is 87, and preference is given to people with deteriorating health.
With board members from Kane, DuPage, Lake and Cook counties, Honor Flight Chicago raises a lot of money and volunteers from the suburbs. Donations come from religious organizations, veterans groups, corporations and smaller groups, such as the $6,640.87 donated recently by the Batavia High School Cheer Team.
"I could tell you 50 stories," says Boeckel, whose voice cracks with emotion as he launches into stories about a blind veteran of Iowa Jima, or the veteran who came back from his Honor Flight to discover all 11 of his children cheering for him at the airport.
Seeing the monument "sure was a thrill," says Honor Flight Chicago passenger Norvel Nelson, 91, of Elgin, a man who knows a little something about thrills.
"We blew up obstacles so the first wave could come in on Omaha Beach," Nelson says of his wartime duty as a Navy frogman setting the stage for the D-Day invasion.
"There are a thousand stories," Boeckel says. "I tell you, I've met the greatest people."
To donate, volunteer or find out how to place a veteran on the waiting list for a one-day trip to our nation's capital, visit www.honorflightchicago.org or phone (773) 227-VETS (8387).
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On the morning of Oct. 20, 2007, a well-liked but troubled Buffalo Grove teenager named Lee Cutler disappeared. His friends from Stevenson High School and his Jewish youth group rallied around his family after the 18-year-old's car was found near Baraboo, Wis. Searchers discovered Cutler's wallet, clothing, an empty bottle of Tylenol PM and letters near a river. Officials searched the water, fearing he might have drowned, but his body was never found.
Now the mystery of what happened to Cutler is featured in an episode of the show "Disappeared," which debuts at 9 p.m. Monday (and runs again on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday) on the Investigation Discovery channel.
"Maybe somebody knows something or has seen Lee, and maybe this program will give us some leads," says Beth Frazin, Cutler's mother.
Frazin says she clings to hope that her son is alive and will return some day. "Not just because I'm his mother," she says, but because she's grown to realize that "anything is possible."