Did you hear - Reporting for duty: 100-year-old World War II veteran heading to Washington today with Honor Flight?

2015-09-26T10:11:54-04:00

Did you hear - Reporting for duty: 100-year-old World War II veteran heading to Washington today with Honor Flight?

This is one of those great stories about a WWII Veteran Heading to Washington DC! Enjoy

http://www.lenconnect.com/article/20150926/NEWS/150929291

A 100-year-old World War II veteran from Adrian has been selected to take an Honor Flight.
Navy veteran Mel Hamerman was surprised during his weekly dinner last Friday at the Lenawee Country Club with his son Bill when representatives from the United States Honor Flight approached his table and extended the invitation to take today’s flight to Washington, D.C. Bill will accompany his father on the trip.

Bobbie Bradley, coordinator of the Honor Flight program for the Kalamazoo hub, was accompanied by Petty Officer 1st Class Greg Dungey, who is the Navy recruiting officer for the Kalamazoo area.
“It was in the form of a World War II draft notice telling him to report for duty on the Honor Flight,” Bradley said. “He has orders to report at 0430 hours Saturday, and we expect to be home by 8:30 p.m.”

Hamerman’s daughter Laurie Feezel of Adrian helped arrange the surprise.

“He was completely shocked,” she said.

The purpose of the visit is to allow veterans the opportunity to visit the World War II Memorial as well as other locations in the nation’s capital. Honor Flight will be flying 83 veterans from Kalamazoo to Washington and back.

Reporting for duty: 100-year-old World War II veteran heading to Washington today with Honor...

A 100-year-old World War II veteran from Adrian has been selected to take an Honor Flight.Navy veteran Mel Hamerman was surprised during his weekly

Response by SCPO Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 26 at 2015 10:21 AM

2015-09-26T10:21:58-04:00

A much deserved salute from all of us and all Americans!!!

Response by SSG Kevin McCulley made Sep 26 at 2015 10:57 AM

2015-09-26T10:57:39-04:00

You know.. being a veteran runs in my family. My dad was an 18E and served from 1960-81 with three tours in Vietnam. I just medically retired after 10 years as a Soldier with a including 27 months in combat myself. I look at this man's face and think on the twilight of the greatest generation. We all remember as this time came upon the WWI generation, with the flurry of news stories and renewed public interest as the last of them slipped into history. The almost cold cycle seems to repeat itself with the WWII generation. This day will come for veterans of the Korean War, Vietnam, and so on. One day it will be my generation’s time to stand in the twilight. This thought, for unknown reasons, rips my heart out. Not for the vets of my war, but for all veterans.

So many humans live their lives in quiet humble mediocrity whereas those who have served and heeded their nation’s call, be it by draft or enlistment, have ‘grabbed history’s torch’ and lived life in a blinding brilliance, even if only for a little while. To ponder such bold examples of humanity quietly passing into the night fills my heart with a formless agony. As each generation leaves us, so much is lost. Modern society no longer values these things, much to our own tragedy. I am reminded of Pvt. Harry Patch. Harry Patch, aka the last Fighting Tommy, at the time of his death, aged 111 years, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day, was the last of the British Empire's surviving infantryman from The Great War. He reflected on the absurdity that in a war where millions came to fight and millions came to die that he would be the last. In one of the final interviews he gave before his passing he remarked on how those we leave behind, lost in war, remain forever young while those who remain carry own and wilt with time’s touch. He shared four lines from a poem called For the Fallen:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

I fear the pain in my heart and yearning for the brothers I’ve lost in Iraq and Afghanistan has only grown worse as the years separating us have increased. Still though, we shall remember. Perhaps the source of my agony when pondering a generation of veteran’s twilight is, “Who will remember them when we are gone?”

Response by PO1 John Miller made Sep 26 at 2015 11:02 PM

2015-09-26T23:02:24-04:00

Thank you for sharing Sir! We must do all we can to honor these men and women from the Greatest Generation before it's too late!

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Jul 4 at 2018 6:23 PM

2018-07-04T18:23:56-04:00

Great share COL Burroughs.