Georgia Magazine - November 2010 - (Page 19)

Honor Flight motto: ‘We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.’ —Will Rogers years, there will be very few of them left to honor. Priority for selection on the trips is given to the eldest World War II veterans along with any veteran facing terminal illness. What is Honor Flight? Honor Flight, now a nationwide effort organized by concerned Americans to recognize and thank World War II veterans, was conceived by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and retired Air Force captain. After retiring from the Air Force in 1998, he was hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to work in a clinic in Springfield, Ohio. In May 2004, the World War II Memorial was finally completed (59 years after the war ended), and the memorial became a hot topic among his World War II veteran patients. Morse wanted to honor these patients he had taken care of for 27 years, but it was clear it wasn’t financially or physically possible for these aging vets to make the journey on their own. Morse was also a private pilot Military guards stand in honor of World War II vets at the World War II Memorial.Vets from left: Fred Johnson, from Macon, was on the USS Maryland at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked; POW Marvin O. Russell, from Loganville, was a B-17 gunner who was shot down and served 13 months in Stalag 17-B; and John F. Vogel, from Peachtree City, served in the Air Corps and was the oldest veteran on the trip at age 95. and a member of one the nation’s largest aero clubs, located at WrightPatterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Then things started coming together. When he told a few veterans/patients about his plans to take them to their memorial, they broke down and cried. The inaugural Honor Flight took place in May 2005. Funds were raised, and six small planes flew out of Springfield, taking 12 World War II veterans to visit their memorial. Responses from both the veterans and the pilots were overwhelming. In August 2005, an ever-expanding waiting list led to taking as many veterans as possible on commercial airline carriers. A partnership with Jeff Miller and HonorAir in Hendersonville, N.C., began the “Honor Flight Network,” and the organization continues to expand programs to cities across the nation; currently, it has 105 hubs in 30 states. “Honor Flight Network has learned a lot over these last six years, and one point that stands out ANN OROWSKI GEORGE KNIGHT D-Day medic Jim Austin, from Rome, left, and Marine Robert Lee Freeman, from Carrollton, were among the vets honored by a 10-car police escort to the Atlanta airport. November 2010 Separated by 60 years of service: Bob Firth, left, a combat medic in Europe during World War II, poses with Christopher Tucker (one of four paramedics on the Sept. 15 trip), who had been a combat medic in Desert Storm. More online at www.georgiamagazine.org Guardian Rebecca Spratlin, from Newnan, center, holds the flag with her father, Robert L. Bierman, from Sharpsburg, left, and her uncle, Charles Bierman Jr., from San Diego, Calif., in honor of their other brother, John, whose plane went down on a Navy reconnaissance flight over Formosa. 19 REBECCA SPRATLIN GREG SPARROW http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - November 2010

Georgia Magazine - November 2010
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
A Tour of Honor
Making it Pay in Georgia
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Georgia Cooks
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - November 2010