A special day for veterans
Crowd turns out for Eastern Iowa Honor Flight 53's return
CEDAR RAPIDS — Less than an hour before midnight on Tuesday, the Eastern Iowa Airport was still full of people, waiting for one special arrival.
It had been a long day for those involved with Eastern Iowa Honor Flight 53. Becky Croy has been guardian coordinator for about eight Honor Flights. She and the staff show up at the airport about 4:30 a.m., the veterans and their guardians arrive around 5:45, and the flight leaves between 7 and 7:15. She said the current wait to get on a flight is two years unless there is a health issue.
The Collins Aerospace Band, which the author plays in, was on hand to play marches and other patriotic songs. It was the second veteran-themed gig in four days after a performance at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.
John Winkel has worked all 53 Honor Flights as a part of Signature Flight Support. “Each flight is unique,” he said. “The neat thing is that the people, even if they’ve been to the memorials before, they find when they go with this group, with their brother veterans, that they see it with fresh eyes and it moves them in such a way.”
The Honor Flights fly to Reagan National Airport. From there, the veterans and their guardians get on buses with a police escort. The World War II, Korea, and Vietnam memorials on the National Mall are part of the visit, as is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, where the veterans witness a Changing of the Guard ceremony.
Tom Colthurst of Washington, Iowa, who served in the Air Force, Army, and Army National Guard from 1974 to 2001, was on the 51st Honor Flight in late May. He said the Honor Flight group is a “top shelf organization, it really is, from registration early on and the orientation, to the flight out, to the touring, everything was very well coordinated and choreographed, and the welcome home was sensational.”
Cathy Kintz of Coralville was there to welcome home her dad, Edwin Cox. Cox, 89, who served during the Korean War, had wanted to do an Honor Flight for years, and it’s “a very big deal for him.” What Cox didn’t know was that his son-in-law, John Kintz, and great-granddaughter, Ellie Besgrove, were also waiting to surprise him.
Terry Van Gilder of Marion, a Navy veteran, went on an Honor Flight 11 years ago. He’s been welcoming his fellow veterans back ever since. “I just get a kick out of shaking these guys’ hands and giving them a welcome home because … Vietnam and the Korean [war veterans] didn’t get that. I was in Korea and I certainly didn’t get any big welcome.”
Even the best-planned operation can get a kink in it. This time, there was a fuel problem, as in, the plane needed some to get back to Iowa. Despite a two-hour delay, a large crowd remained on hand for the veterans’ return.
“All these people, it’s delayed, it’s late at night, and these people are hanging around, they’re not going anywhere,” Colthurst said. On the May flight, “It probably took 45 minutes to get off the plane and through the airport with all the hand shaking and the Girl Scouts giving out cookies and the newspaper giving out clippings of all the veterans, they’ve done it 53 times and they’ve got it down pat.” (The Gazette is an Honor Flight sponsor. A spread with the veterans’ pictures was in Sunday’s paper.)
When the flight finally arrived, the veterans entered the terminal to a heroes’ welcome. Boy Scouts in uniform and others held flags on either side of the start of a marked corridor. Among the flag-holders was David Ahart of Cedar Rapids. “If we don’t honor our own,” he said, “nobody else will.”
The band played a medley of armed forces service songs. As the veterans proceeded down the marked path, applause and hugs were plentiful.
Welcome home, veterans, and thank you.
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Colorful and meaningful story. Thanks!