STEWART AIRPORT – Hundreds
of people – area residents, veterans and elected officials –
came to Stewart International Airport Saturday morning to support the
84 veterans embarking on the 9th Hudson Valley Honor Flight to Washington,
D.C. This flight celebrated VJ Day, or Victory Over Japan Day, which holds
significant meaning to those who fought in WWII.
The 60 WWII veterans, two of them women, 22 Korean War veterans and two
Vietnam War veterans were brought to the airport terminal by motorcade,
passing by enormous American flags displayed in their honor on the various
parts of the roadway leading up to Stewart. As always, since Hudson Valley
Honor Flight established these trips in 2011, veterans were greeted by
a mass of people lining the terminal entrance, holding signs and cheering
them on as they prepared to fly to the capital. For many of these veterans,
it would be their first time visiting their respective war monuments.
Theodore Zulkowski, a 96-year-old WWII veteran, was one of the vets who
had never been to visit the WWII memorial in D.C., but, to him visiting
the memorial wouldn’t be the most significant part of the experience.
“I think though, the most important thing I found today, was the
enthusiasm of the people; as a matter of fact, I’m almost at the
point of crying about,” said Zulkowski. “It brings back too
many memories and it makes me so proud of America and being an American.”
Rep. Christopher Gibson greets a WWII vet going on the flight
Sea of people came to the airport to see the vets off on
their day in Washington
Initially, the Honor Flights were only for WWII veterans but, as the “Greatest
Generation” enters their 90s and many of them have passed on, Honor
Flight has begun branching out to accommodate Korean War veterans and
in special cases, Vietnam War veterans. This will be the second flight
since that accommodation began.
Jim Marchie, a Korean War veteran, was another participant who would visit
for the first time.
“I’m very excited; first time in Washington D.C.,” said
Marchie.
One might begin to ponder, if Honor Flights are free for the veterans
who participate and all possible accommodations they may require are attended
to by trained Honor Flight Guardians, why have so many of them never been
to their memorials? According to Brian Maher, co-founder of Hudson Valley
Honor Flight, it is extremely difficult to get these veterans to participate
in something that, from their points of view, seems self-serving. Even
when asked directly, some still decline the invitation.
“They asked me once before and I turned it down and this is the
second time,” said Marchie.
His first response, unfortunately, was not unique to himself and many
other veterans who needed convincing as well. Upon realizing this, Maher
said the organization began to take a different approach to getting veterans
to participate in flights.
“To get them to go onto a flight, we reach out to their family,”
said Maher. “So, their family hears about our organization and they
convince their loved ones to go and that has been really, the way to get
through to them.”
Over 600 WWII veterans have participated in Honor Flights so far.
As Honor Flight continues to grow, more and more people, who are not veterans
or from veteran families, have begun to participate. Maher said he sees
this as the beginning of Honor Flight becoming much more than it was initially
set out to be: an event to honor veterans, as well as to provide means
for elderly veterans to go and see their war memorials. Now, Honor Flight
is becoming the venue for veterans to have the grand reception they may
not have gotten when they came home from war and is providing a forum
for meaningful human interaction that spans generations, while still accomplishing
the goals it established from the very beginning.
Honor Flight will host another flight out of Westchester in November and
will have the Dutchess County premiere of the Honor Flight Documentary
on November 14.
