World War II Veterans, Thank You!

Earl Morse, President and Founder

Honor Flight, Inc.

We are in the season of thankfulness, but it’s impossible to adequately thank some senior members of American society -- but I’ll try.  My brother, sister and I grew up in several countries, in the loving home of a career Air Force father and British mother.  I remember when my father was stationed at Hoff Air Base in Germany, just 5 kilometers from Czechoslovakia.   My family took an orientation tour of the area which included a visit to the Czech and West German Border.  It was an eye-opening experience that lives with me to this day.

We were a very colorful group that morning of the tour.  It was 1969 and I was a typical 11 year old hippy-wannabe, dressed in a brightly colored tie-dyed tee shirt and blue corduroy bellbottom pants.    All of us were brilliantly stylish.  The first stop of the border tour positioned us on a hill overlooking a Czech city.  Between us and the city were two 15 foot high fences topped with razor wire.  The fences were separated by a mine field.  Guard towers strategically placed about 1000 yards apart on the Czech side, had two guards, flood lights and several machine guns.  Tourist telescopes welcomed us to peer into the Czech city.  Through the eyepieces, I noticed the stark contrast of colors.  Everything was in shades of gray, brown and black; the buildings, the clothing and even the mood of the people on the other side of the mine field were dreary.  No one on the other side smiled or even acknowledged one another in passing.  They walked with heads down, with direction but without purpose or life.  I pulled my eyes back from the telescope and was struck by all the bright “hippy” colors that surrounded me.  The contrast was so stark that it stuck with me for these past 35 years.  This “fence” stretched from one horizon to the other.  An entire nation, and all its inhabitants behind barbed wire, imprisoned physically and spiritually.  It was obvious there were “haves” and “have-nots.”  As the tour continued, I viewed photographs of some “have-nots” that tried to escape; their bodies on barbed wire, the remains of others in mine fields.  The people in the pictures were willing to sacrifice their very lives to breathe free – the very same breath I was taking for granted.  I thanked God we were on the “haves” side of the barbed wire.  I later learned there was someone else I should have thanked.

On another day, we toured the remnants of several concentration camps.  Words can’t describe what it was like to stand on the very same spot depicted in the grainy, black and white photos positioned throughout the camp.  Deceased and living skeletons were everywhere in the photographs.   As a child, I looked at the kids in the pictures.  The children, men, women, and the elderly in the photos were walking corpses.  Despair and death filled their faces.  I turned from the horrific photos of the skeletons in black and white prison rags.  Again, I was surrounded by bright, colorful clothing, pink healthy faces, and green grass.  Colorful floral wreaths were laid throughout the camp to remember the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims.  I thanked God that I wasn’t one of those kids in the photographs but again, there was someone else I should have thanked. 

Over the past 65 years, Germany and all of Europe changed.  Gone are the barbed wire fences and mine fields that kept entire countries imprisoned.  Similar images, descriptions, and stark contrasts can be used to describe the Pacific Theater and Western China.  The Japanese prison camps, death marches, brutal occupation and totalitarian rule are gone.  The Pacific is now free and Europe is free.   I don’t just mean their people are free to live where they want to live, or work in occupations of their choosing.  They are so totally free that they can criticize the very country that fought and sacrificed so much for their freedoms. 

Freedom is a vague, nondescript concept taken for granted by most Americans.  We are privileged because we CAN take freedom for granted.  Those who have their freedom stolen from them are much less apathetic.  Those imprisoned people who were willing to sacrifice their very lives to breathe free know that freedom is not an ambiguous concept.  Without freedom, death appears to be an acceptable risk to take.  You can’t put a price on our most prized possession - freedom.  Some say, “The greatest things in life are free.” Freedom isn’t one of them.  During World War II, about 400,000 Americans gave their lives in battles to secure freedom for Europe, the Pacific, and America.  Many of the survivors of these battles are among us today.  They are the old man who drives too slow (actually doing the speed limit).  You can find them in the checkout line paying for groceries with dollar bills and counting out the change, instead of swiping a credit card.  They are “old school” men and women who are the most stoic, appreciative, hard working, patriotic and humble people who walk the earth.  They are the people I should have thanked while touring the border, and while walking through the concentration camp.  They are also the same people that the whole world should thank.

Now in the final chapter of their lives, most are trying to survive on tiny fixed incomes.  Their life savings are gone, wiped out by skyrocketing health care costs.  They have earned our undying gratitude, but often don’t get any acknowledgement.  They collectively and literally saved the world, but for 60 years, they had no national memorial to their service and the ultimate sacrifices of their friends.  In 2004 a WWII Memorial for our nation’s most senior heroes was dedicated; however, now in their 80’s and 90’s, they have no means to visit it.

The Honor Flight Network began as a small token of our appreciation to get WWII Veterans out to visit THEIR memorial, to visit America’s “Thank You” for their incredible accomplishments and the sacrifices of friends that never made it home.  The entire flight and subsequent bus tour are completely free to members of “The Greatest Generation.”  We work tirelessly to get every WWII Veteran in America out to their memorial; however, we simply can’t get to all of them before it’s too late.  That’s why I now take every opportunity to simply say “Thank you for what you’ve done” to everyone I encounter over the age of 80.  When I do, their faces light up and they walk away a little taller.  I would ask that every American take a second to acknowledge and say “Thank You” to every WWII Veteran they encounter.  They will treasure your comments for the rest of their lives.