Honor Flight sends WW II vets to Washington, D.C., for a day
VETERANS | Holly Dillemuth
Springfield resident Bernard Carver, 89, remembers loading ammunition, refueling four-engine B-24 bombers and flying along with pilots in the Eighth Air Force, to pick up equipment during World War II.
Early Tuesday morning, April 5, Carver, along with his son, Bernie Carver, boarded a plane, this time chartered by Land of Lincoln Honor Flight. The elder Carver was among 86 veterans who spent one day touring sites at the World War II Memorial, and both the Korean and Vietnam War memorials, along with witnessing the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
“I’d never seen the monument and I guess it’s getting to where if I’m going to see it, I better go,” said Bernard Carver, before he flew to Washington, D.C.
Volunteers hand out letters of appreciation from family and friends on the flight back that landed in Springfield after 10 p.m. the
same night. Since it began in 2009, Land of Lincoln Honor Flight has given more than 500 veterans a free flight to see the memorial as a way to say thank you for their service. “To me, we owe everything to that generation for the freedoms that we still have today,” says Ray Wiedle, president of Land of Lincoln Honor Flight. “The World War II generation is known as the greatest generation. To me, I haven’t met a more giving generation.”
With donations from businesses and individuals, the organization not only picks up the tab for the veterans’ flight from Springfield and back, but all meals, beverages and incidentals along the way. Wheeled chairs are available for veterans who need them, as are trained guardians like Bernie Carver, 64, who is among 74 guardians who guided the men to and from sites throughout the day.
Wiedle, a veteran of Vietnam, helped found the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight
along with Springfield resident Bob Matteson, 85. Wiedle, a 24-year resident of Chatham before moving to St. Ann, Mo., was first a guardian for an Honor Flight in Missouri, where he met Matteson. Bob Matteson, A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, flew with Honor Flight out of St. Louis at the time, because there wasn’t a program through Springfield. Matteson is a former board member for Land of Lincoln Honor Flight and remains a strong supporter.
“A lot of these guys never had the opportunity to go out and see the memorial,” says Matteson. “We’ll take them out there and we will keep them up for long hours, we will tire them out, wind them up and they’ll love every minute of it,” Matteson said at the Veterans of Foreign Wars banquet on the eve of the flight.
Even before the daylong trip, the thought of being near fellow veterans and seeing the
memorial dedicated to those who served in World War II brought out veterans’ stories and recollections overlooked or forgotten. Some shared their stories with Illinois Times days before takeoff.
It was long into their marriage that John Knoepfle’s wife, Peggy Knoepfle, 76, heard about his service in the U.S. Navy.
“He used to say he didn’t want to become obsessed with it,” she says, as she looks over at him on their living room couch. “He also downplayed a lot of what he’d done.”
“We did what we were assigned to do,” says John Knoepfle.
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