Forgotten Heroes Living Among US

In 2013, a friend of mine asked me if I was interested in volunteering for an organization called Honor Flight Austin. This organization’s mission is to find World War II veterans who have never been to Washington, D.C. to see their monuments. While Honor Flight Austin’s main focus is WW II vets, they also make this trip possible to Vietnam and Korean War Veterans free of cost.

Honor Flight Austin provides free airfare, meals, and lodging for our heroes and they rely heavily on volunteers who are called Guardians so that each veteran is assisted for an entire evening and day in D.C.

As we all know, this generation of veterans is getting very old and one thing that Honor Flight Austin wants to do is to get as many WWI veterans to D.C. before they are no longer with us.

Although their highest priority is to make this trip available to WWII Veterans, they offer this trip to other able and willing veterans on a first-come, first-served basis and then priority goes to our Korean War Veterans and ALL Veterans with a terminal illness.

It’s the least we can do and due to the private funds donated mostly by individual Texans, other funds come in from organizations such as the American Legion, the VFW, and DAV as well as other corporations.

Now, when I volunteered, I was a full-time student in college and my two kids were toddlers. My husband (a 9/11 era disabled veteran) whose health was very challenging inspired me to want to help because I realized that a special opportunity for any veteran such as to go see their monument would be extremely meaningful and maybe even healing for some.

I drove an hour to my awesome sister-in-law’s house so she could watch my kids in order for me to volunteer and my hubby stayed home with a friend keeping him company (in case he needed help). I really wanted to do this-I mean, these were WWII heroes and they deserved this! My hubby was very supportive of this as well.

Having been a Guardian I would say was the most fulfilling experience for me that year. I went to the airport to greet our WWII Heroes. As they came out of the plane everyone near the gate stood up and applauded them as all 48 of them came out.

One by one, a Guardian would take a wheelchair (they could walk but this made it easier for them) and escorted the veterans towards a charter bus that would take them to the hotel they were being lodged at.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we all sat down and had a delicious dinner in a private room. While we ate, they shared their stories.

Some shared their experience as POWs (something I never imagined I would hear directly from a POW Veteran) and two female WWII Veterans shared their experience in a time in society where women were not thought of as soldiers or treated as one.  

Nevertheless, it was unbelievable to think of a woman being in the front lines of war. But it happened more often than not.

At that moment, as I sat there it started to feel surreal that these human beings I was sitting among were real heroes.

It was completely different than the stories I’d read in history books. I realized how many WWII movies I’d watched and cried over in the past.

And there I was. Sitting among them. With the men and women who changed the outcome of the world for the US. For future generations.

I kept listening and watching everyone in the room. Some of them cried as they told their stories, others said nothing and after having broken bread together, each Guardian escorted their Veteran to their rooms.

Guardians went home, but one of the ladies who had traveled from Texas with the Honor Flight Austin Staff was kind to share her room with me so I wouldn’t have had to drive far being that we had to wake up our veterans by 5 am.

The next day Guardians woke up early and headed to their Veteran’s room to wake up. Some were already dressed and ready to go. Others struggled since it was still very early. We had breakfast with them and then headed towards the buses.

We were taken to different monuments throughout the day and I realized that a lot of them were not just WWII Veterans, but Vietnam and Korean War Veterans as well.

They’d been through more than one war in their lifetime and their pride in having been part of it really showed. For others, it was very painful, but they wanted to be there.

Some would get to their memorial and bow their head and cry. Others would start a story that they were reminded of and then there were those who just looked at everything without saying a word.

Being a veteran myself, I felt that I could connect on a very small level about how they felt about their service. All of them were so proud of what they had done and every time I told them I had served ten years, they were mesmerized.

Each time they’d ask what my job had been in the military, they reacted with shock that I had been a mechanic on tanks and heavy wheel vehicles.

When we got to the Holocaust Museum I got a little nervous because I did not know how some would react. I had visited this museum several times I always cry for those who suffered and even for those who survived and had to live without their loved ones or in fear that their lives would be put in danger again.

As we traveled through the museum, I was furious because other people would see us coming through with our Veterans in the wheelchairs and would not move out of the way to let them pass.

Almost all of them wore a hat that mentioned the war era they’d served in. A lot of people would not let our Veterans move to the front of the crowd so they could see the television screens playing stories or the walls full of pictures and placards indicating what the displays were about.

I felt so ashamed that the newer generations did not give them the courtesy they deserved. It was very obvious who they were, with their Honor Flight Austin t-shirts and their WWII Veteran hats clearly visible for all to see.

But as I was going through the museum, my Veteran asked me to stop and let him see a high wall full of pictures. He was there for quite a while and watching him and all the other veterans made me feel a huge sense of gratitude.

For a moment, I felt like time had become still and I was slowly walking among angels, warriors who had fought for all of us to walk among them that day.

These men and women were not some actors from a WWII movie. They were REAL heroes!!

We have so many war heroes living among us, who fought for our freedoms and rights to life with opportunity and the right to be whoever we want to be.

They saved HUMANITY!! And Americans today need to step up more than ever when they see leaders abuse powers, oppress groups of people by reinforcing negative stereotypes that fill people with a fear of others.

We need to do right by our fallen heroes and by those who still live among us today.

Because our soldiers and our veterans don’t put their lives on the line so that we can stand by and watch anyone leader slowly take over our freedom, our democracy, and our future outcomes.

While some of us are grateful for what our veterans have done for us, we must ask ourselves, WILL MY KIDS BE PROUD THAT WE DID SOMETHING ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS TODAY????

Or will they condemn us for not having cared enough to make sure they live in a safe, free world?

-Dali