Last Honor Flight 9/11

How befitting for the last Honor Flight for the World War II Veterans to visit their memorial be on the anniversary of the worst disaster in the United States since the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Honor Flight Tennessee Valley has now flown 12 flights and 1300 Veterans to Washington DC to visit their memorial which was completed in 2004, 60 years after these men and women had honored our country with their service. Many of the survivors of WWII never lived to see this memorial, this is why it was of the upmost importance to send as many flights and often as the money could be raised. We are losing our veterans at a heartbreaking rate. Many have passed just days or weeks after making this trip.

This last trip carried 103 veterans, each with a guardian to assist them with any thing they may need. From our Limestone County area going on this flight are Eugene Beddingfield - Army, Melvin Moyers - Army, Margaret Phillips - Navy, Elwood, "Woody" Lowe - Navy, Dennison Rice - Army, Pembroke "Pem" Rees - Navy, and my husband’s two uncles Richard Todd - Army and Harvey Todd - Navy.

.

Uncle Harvey and Uncle Carbon before boarding the last Tennessee Valley Honor Flight on Sept 11,2010

 

On this last flight are my husband’s 2 surviving uncles that fought in the war; they are the last of his father's family, the youngest of the six children born to Howard P. and Laura Bell Pressnell Todd. This too seemed poetic the last flight to take the last children, brothers, uncles of our family on such a significant date.

Harvey Todd, born in 1928, was anxious to join the military. After learning from a friend, at age18 you have to sign up for the draft that gave him an idea. January 3rd 1945, (not quite 17 yrs. old), Harvey went to the selective service office, he was told by the lady in the office he looked too young to be of age to enlist, he replied, "well, I was told when you turn 18 you are to come and sign up...but if you don't want me..." and he turns to leave. At that time (thinking he is 18) the lady calls him back and signed him up. On February 22nd 1945 Harvey was in the Navy and off to Great Lakes Illinois for boot camp. After which he was sent to Treasure Island in the South Pacific. Upon arriving in the Philippines he was assigned to the Seaplane Tender USS Orca APV 49 and was in Samara when the war ended. The night he learned of the war ending they were to go to the beach and watch a movie, but Harvey decided he would stay in the barracks instead, “all at once I heard guns a shooting down in the jungle, I said, oh me, those Japanese are coming and I don’t have a gun.” But when the group arrived they told them the war was over, finally.

He told me thoroughly enjoyed his time at sea, and had great memories of his adventures. Harvey was discharged from the Navy in June 1946 and sought work at Century Steel in Michigan. He would later work for Solar Steel, Hannah Steel and later in 1970 work for TVA here in Athens until he retired in 1988. He and his wife Florence, have 3 sons, and enjoy keeping the company of their grandchildren and their 2 great-grandchildren.

Richard Todd, (we all call him Carbon) has a different kind of war story. In 1942, Carbon was 17, with signed consent from his mother, he enlisted in the Army. His battles took him into the trenches of Africa and on to Sicily where we would be wounded twice. One injury was when he was sent out to intercept a sniper who had penetrated the line, he noticed the wheat in the field starting to move, "I tried to fire my gun, but it had jammed," he remembered, the sniper shot him thru the right cheek and the bullet exited just below his right ear. The sniper thinking he had shot him through the head looks at him and leaves. It would be 3 hours before his company would send out help and locate him.

Carbon was also hit in his back with a hand grenade while in a foxhole with other soldiers. He was tossed into the air, where he suffered a concussion, nerve damage and back injuries. The soldiers on each side of him were killed. The injury that would send him home though would come from a spider bite. A tarantula was in a foxhole he took cover in when it bit him on the shoulder. He was unconscious and hospitalized for several days, he was given a medical discharge from the Army and sent to an Army hospital in Florida to recover. He said if he hadn't been bitten and discharged, he would have made a career in the military, he loved everything about the Army, and would go back today if he could. HE IS PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

Carbon wants all for our young people to know the history of our country, “this is America, and we love our country and should be willing to go serve however is needed to protect our country.”

Harvey added, “The Lord has put us in this special country and I think our younger generation ought to look to Him for guidance and live by his rules. – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Those are the kind of men that made up our "greatest generation"! Men who wanted to go to protect our country, our families and our freedom. Men who would risk everything they had to see we didn't lose what they had fought so hard to protect. Uncle Carbon received a Purple Heart, the Heroic Meritorious Achievement, Good Conduct, Infantry Badge and many other metals for his actions in the Army, which he donated to Veterans Museum on Friday before he left on Honor Flight.

Our Veterans Museum is more than storage for old artifacts, it's a place for others to learn what our grandfathers, fathers, uncles and our grandmothers & aunts did for us. It contains personal belongings of our relatives that remind us of how we should live and conduct our lives. How the consequences of war are not all about winning or losing, or about how long you served, these folks served our country in war time and in time of peace. These people who served our country did so with honor, for our rights for freedom.

God Bless the USA families!

Teresa Akins Todd
AthensPlus.com
September 11th, 2010

More information maybe found online at www.honorflight.net/index.html

Buses will transport the veterans and volunteer escorts to the World War II Memorial. If able the group will tour other monuments in the Washington, D.C. area including the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, the Air Force Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The flight will arrive back to Huntsville approximately by 9:PM.

There is information from previous Honor Flights containing Photo from a reception held at our Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives in Athens go to www.athensplus.com/honor_05212010.htm
Also a Pearl Harbor program was held in 2009 at the Senior Center in Athens info and photos may be viewed at www.tourathenshomes.com/veterans/pearlharbor/remembered.htm
                                                    
The memorial opened to the public on April 29, 2004 and was dedicated one month later on May 29. It is located on 17th Street, between Constitution and Independence Avenues, and is flanked by the Washington Monument to the east and the Lincoln Memorial to the west. The memorial is operated by the National Park Service and is open to visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about visiting the memorial, accessibility, parking, directions, special events and other details, please visit the National Park Service Web site at www.nps.gov/nwwm  or call the Park Service at (202) 619-7222.
 

Flight Schedule of past visits:

12th Scheduled Flight - September 11, 2010

Past Flights:

1st Flight - April 4, 2007
Tennessee Valley Honor Flight Maiden Voyage (Completed)

2nd Flight - September 15, 2007
(Completed)

3rd Flight - April 19, 2008
(Completed)

4th Flight - May 31, 2008
(Completed)

5th Flight - September 13, 2008
(Completed)

6th Flight - October 11, 2008
(Completed)

7th Flight - April 25, 2009
(Completed)

8th Flight - August 29, 2009
(Completed)

9th Scheduled Flight - October 24, 2009
Liberty's Legacy Honor Flight (Completed)

10th Scheduled Flight - April 11, 2010
(Completed)

11th Scheduled Flight - May 29, 2010
(Completed)