News

Veterans thanked for 'the forgotten victory'

By Ashley Elder, Published: September 26, 2016

When WWII began, Bill Teal was 18 years old, unaware that he was about to fight in some of the most crucial battles in an epic conflict that shaped the 20th century. At age 93 — 70 years after the war ended — Teal got to see the memorial to his war for the first time.

“Unbelievable,” said Teal, an Army artillery veteran from Charlotte. “I never thought it was possible.”
A member of the 6th Army division, Teal trained in the Mojave Desert, then traveled to Camp Cook in New York and on to the European theater.
“It was a battle from there on out,” Teal said. “Something that had to be done. I was with Patton all the way — from beginning to end.”
Teal is the same age as former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. The 1996 Republican presidential nominee, an enthusiastic supporter of HonorAir from the start, greeted Teal and the other veterans at the entrance to the memorial.
Teal said although the war is hard to talk about, it wasn’t all bad. His hat contains five stars, one for every major battle he fought, including the Battle of the Bulge.
“We lost a lot of boys that day,” he said with tears in his eyes. “Think of the boys who couldn’t be here. This is something else. Really something.”

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The flight on Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of the effort to recognize World War II veterans by giving them a free trip to see the National World War II Memorial and other sights in the Capital, including the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Vietnam Memorial. Cofounded in Hendersonville by Jeff Miller, the veteran-honoring organization has grown into a national network of volunteers that has flown more than 200,000 aging veterans to Washington. On Saturday, the American Airlines jet that took off from Asheville carried more Korean War veterans than those from World War II, marking the official kickoff of the network’s effort to honor those who fought in the “Forgotten War.” 

The veterans received a rousing and emotional welcome at Reagan National Airport. Honored with red, white and blue leis and thank you notes from F.S. Key Elementary School students, the veterans were overwhelmed by the outpouring of gratitude.
“Everything was first class,” said James Taylor, 86. “Almost brought tears to my eyes this morning.”
Travelers walking through the terminal stopped to shake hands with the men as they got off the plane.
“The ‘thank yous’ over and over, I’ve never had that before,” said Taylor, who delivered troops on an LPT boat in the Navy during the Korean War.
Taylor met up with his grandson and 9-month-old great-granddaughter at the WWII memorial, the first stop on the tour.

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A police escort led four buses loaded with veterans to the National WWII Memorial for the first stop on what would be a memorable day for the 182 veterans, guides and other volunteers on the trip.

Next the veterans boarded buses for the Korean War Memorial, where the Korean War veterans received medals and participated in a wreath laying ceremony.

South Korean Defense Attache Major General Shin Kyoung-soo thanked the veterans for their service to his country.
“Some call the Korean War ‘the forgotten war.’ I call it ‘the forgotten victory,’” he said.
Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea, also expressed his gratitude for the sacrifices the  war veterans made. Brooks said he would not board his plane back to his base without thanking the veterans first.
Navy Corpsman Bill Trapani got to Korea on the fourth day after the war started. The invasion of Inchon happened while he was there. He was taken off his ship and put on a field evacuation unit.
“We set up a small hospital. I did that for four months in Korea and went back to my ship,” he said.
Originally from Brooklyn, he came home on leave for 10 days, only to be sent back to Korea for six months. He took patients to Kimpo, where they could be flown out if necessary.
“The memorial was absolutely beautiful, better than I thought it would be,” Trapani said. “Just to see a bunch of Korean guys again, still pushing, still pulling. We left a lot of young men behind.”
“The Honor Flight is probably one of the greatest things I’ve experienced in my life and I’m 86 years old,” he added. “It’s quite an honor. Strangers walk up and shake your hand and it’s nice, you know.”
His 64th wedding anniversary is coming up in November.

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Roger Dunn was born in Illinois but lived in California before his service in Korea for Army intelligence.

Stationed at Kimpo with the Air Force, Dunn had a top security clearance along with his captain and corporal. Dunn remembers a time when a plane developed engine problems.
There was oil on the windshield. “That was kinda sweaty,” he said. He was only 24 then.
They flew down a rocky river bed.
“Taking off, we barely cleared the rocks by eight feet,” Dunn said.
Dunn got married before the war.
He was going to intelligence school and had just brought his son home.
“The hardest part was being gone a year,” he said.
His son was walking by the time he got home. “Missing that was the hardest,” he said.
Saturday’s Honor Flight was the first he had been able to go on.
“My wife Betty said, ‘Why don’t you go?,’” he said. The Dunns have six children and 14 grandchildren, with great-grandchildren on the way.
“It brings back old memories,” he said. “I think it’s terrific.”
Dunn raised his kids in Florida before retiring in Brevard.
Dunn’s best friend in Korea made it back to the U.S. with him. He has since passed away.
When the truce between North and South Korea came, “I drove over to watch them exchange POWs,” Dunn said.It was so cold the oil in engines froze.

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Navy veteran Leo Monahan of Barnardsville was a machinist mate on an amphibious ship in the Korean War.

“The ship was busy,” he said. “We carried prisoners, wounded and refugees aboard.”
He also served in the Inchon invasion.
Monahan said his favorite part about being in the Navy was visiting Japanese ports and being able to see a lot of cities.
Following the war, he went to art school on the G.I. bill in Los Angeles. He then went on to run his own design businesses, landing Disney a client.
Monahan went to Vietnam during the war as a civilian.
He said the main difference between the countries was the weather.
“Korea was so cold; Vietnam was so hot.”
The DMZ in Korea is “dreadful,” he declares. “The Korean War is still on. All there is is just a truce. It’s very dangerous. I personally think something dreadful will happen.”
Monahan continues to make art today.

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Jay Kirby, the CEO of Pardee Hospital, which signed on as a major sponsor of the HonorFlight trip, served as a volunteer guardian, in charge of guiding three veterans.
"It’s really interesting because I’ve got one World War II, one Korean and one that did both," Kirby said. The last was Ralph Hall, a Hendersonville native and 1941 graduate of Hendersonville High School. The trip meant a lot to Kirby.
"My grandfather was killed in World War II," he said, "so when I look at these guys I think what my grandfather would be like."
"When this opened I brought my dad," he said of the World War II Memorial. "My dad never knew his dad. My dad was six months old. My wife’s uncle died in the Korean War."
The greeting and gratitude the veterans get invariably impresses guardians as much as it does the veterans.
"Tears came into my eyes watching it at the airport," Kirby said. "I don’t think there was a dry eye there. I told ‘em I was going to start hanging out with them more. I didn’t get this kind of treatment at home. They got more lipstick than they know what to do. … Nobody in Washington, D.C., knows these people but they know what they did.”

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One of the final stops on the trip was Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 400,000 service men and women are buried on 624 acres of rolling hillside.

Vietnam veteran Larry Rice and WWII veteran Arthur Fricks participated in the wreath laying ceremony after everyone watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“I was impressed,” Rice said. “I was glad I was able to participate.”
Rice, 79, served as a field artillery officer for the Army and a military adviser to the South Vietnamese during 1967 and ’68.
Rice appreciated the show of support for the military while in D.C. “I’ve had several comments about my hat,” he said. Rice joined the Navy Reserves at 17 and then became a Marine before entering the Army.
Rice’s guardian on the trip was his great-grandson Brandon Rice, 20.
The last stop of the day was the U.S. Air Force Memorial.
Maj. Gen. Rick Devereaux’s father, Robert Devereaux, who was an Air Force pilot, was impressed by the soaring imagery.
“It’s the most spectacular memorial in D.C.,” he said. “Dynamite!”
When the group returned to Reagan National, a live band played Elvis songs in the terminal. The veterans danced while they waited to board the plane.
“Washington was in rare form today,” Miller said.
So was Asheville. The veterans got one last surprise when they landed. Gov. Pat McCrory greeted the veterans along with their friends and family at Asheville Regional Airport. The crowd cheered as the veterans joined family members and exited the terminal into the night.