Posted on 04/22/2007 5:28:54 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
More than 120 World War II veterans from the Waconia area will make a quick trip to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to see the national World War II Memorial.
The trip is a gift from the community.
The veterans will get a sheriff's escort to their charter flight early Wednesday, and they'll be welcomed home late Wednesday night with a candlelight parade.
The Waconia Lions Club organized the trip and led a community-wide fundraiser to pay the more than $50,000 cost. Children collected $14,000 of the total and a wounded veteran at home on leave from Iraq home gave $500.
Doctors and nurses from Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia volunteered to accompany the vets, many of whom are frail.
"It's a fantasy come true," said Elgin Dirks, 80. "I'd never go by myself. And I so want to see it."
"It took 60 years before these guys got a memorial, and maybe one or two of them have seen it," said Chuck Anderson, principal at Bayview Elementary School and a member of the Waconia Lions Club.
The veterans will have lunch at the Armed Forces Retirement Home and spend the afternoon as tourists visiting the World War II Memorial, which opened in April 2004, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Approximately 16 million men and women served with U.S. forces during World War II, and only about 3 million are still alive. About 1,200 die every day.
Several veterans said their thoughts at the memorial will be of buddies who didn't make it.
"Two of the guys I played football with in high school were killed," said Clarence Feltman, 83, who grew up in Young America and served in the 3rd Army under Gen. George Patton.
"One was killed when a Japanese kamikaze (suicide pilot) hit his ship," he said. "The other was on a tanker that was torpedoed."
"These are people we'll never forget," said Albert Sauerer, 88, who fought with the 2nd Armored Division through the Battle of the Bulge.
What a great story BTLD.
Big kudos to the Waconia Lions Club!
What a wonderful thing to do! People like these are what makes me believe our country is still great.
Once in a while some good news comes from Minnesota!!
Super fine!!
A great story to say the least. So many served. Shame so many of this age cannot see how alike people like Saddam where to Hitler. Perhaps they would be less eager to condemn what America and willing Coalition partners had decided must be done during OIF I and later OIF II, and the follow up SASO.
Great story.
BTTT!!!!!!!
Glad you liked it..
I don’t live in Waconia, but I’m going to send a check to their Lions Club chapter.
all interested in this article will be interested in Honor Flight..
check it out & spread the world so WW2 vets can go to DC free to see their monument & also Korean or Viet Vets with terminal illness.
BUMP!!!
This story is a real spirit lifter....thank you for sharing it with us.
a wounded veteran at home on leave from Iraq home gave $500.
How awesome of that wounded hero to honor the previous generation!
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