Honor Flight worth the wait for World War II veteran from Elk Grove

Since 2008, more than 5,500 Chicago-area World War II veterans have experienced the daylong trip to Washington, D.C., provided by Honor Flight Chicago.

But as the Greatest Generation gets older and older, the call to get another 15,000 Chicago-area veterans on the all-expense-paid flights to the nation's capital takes on a greater urgency.

At 95, Milton Merklin was the oldest veteran of the 88 men and women on the most recent flight June 30.

After years of prodding by family, he's glad he finally went.

"I was impressed by everything," said Merklin, an Army veteran from Elk Grove Village, recounting his visit to the half-dozen or so memorials, including those for World War II, Iwo Jima, the Air Force, Abraham Lincoln, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

He says what stood out was the historic aircraft in the National Air and Space Museum.

And he didn't expect the reception he and the other veterans received when they returned later that night to Midway Airport - some 3,000 people holding banners and waving flags, an honor guard of motorcyclists holding flags, and bagpipers playing music filling the baggage claim area. Seated in wheelchairs, the veterans came one by one down an aisle, shaking hands with those who came to greet them.

This, after a whirlwind day in which the veterans arrived at Midway 3 a.m. to board their chartered flight to Washington.

"From the first guy to the last guy, people were just screaming, 'Welcome home!' and, 'Thank you for your service!'" said Vicki Vesper, Merklin's daughter who was joined by eight family members along the welcome route.

A common sight since the first honor flight, many of the veterans began to cry. And those in the audience, too.

"That's when I lost it," Vesper said.

Born in St. Louis and raised in Chicago, Merklin was working in an automobile heater manufacturing plant at the time he was drafted into the Army at age 22.

He and others from the 38th Engineer regiment arrived to Omaha Beach four days after D-Day in 1944. Their primary objective was to put up tents and dig foxholes.

Merklin, an Army sergeant, recalls some of the grim moments of the war, like seeing men come into the military hospital with injuries.

But he also recalls the discipline being in the Army instilled in him.

One time he walked past two lieutenants without saluting.

"They said, 'Soldier, don't you salute an officer?' I didn't know what to say," Merklin said.

Vesper says she encouraged her dad as many as four years ago to take the flight. Then again this year, a staff member at Alexian Village, where Merklin lives, told him about it.

"I think it's such an awesome thing what they're doing," Vesper said.

Honor Flight Chicago organizes monthly flights to Washington, D.C. Applications to take a flight are available at honorflightchicago.org.