Now in its final season, Northwest Ohio Honor Flight on Wednesday gave area veterans a chance to be
honored, and to look back, as the Memorial Day holiday approached.
"It was just one of the most amazing (things)," said Chuck Garber, Bowling Green. "People
just thanking us for serving America."
Garber, a veteran of the Marine Corps, was stationed in Hawaii for three years of his time in the
service.
"I was actually there when it was a territory. I arrived there in early ’59, and in later ’59 it
became a state.
"I was a mechanic shop chief," he said. "I went to school to be a mechanic and they made
me shop chief and that was another highlight."
Garber left the service in October of 1965, having attained the rank of Sergeant E-5.
"I was in charge of the color guard," he said, "and that was just definitely one of the
greatest blessings I had, just being able to serve our country and to be in charge of the color
guard."
The Honor Flight trip, which included visits to a number of the military monuments throughout Washington,
D.C., including the World War II Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial, proved to be a powerful
experience.
"As a matter of fact, I did a lot of crying," Garber said. "And going to Washington, D.C.,
and seeing … each memorial, and of course, being a Marine and seeing (the Iwo Jima memorial) was just
very, very touching.
"It’s just an experience of a lifetime," he said.
Perrysburg resident Doug Pratt, who also went on the trip, served in the Army from 1953 to 1955.
"I did not go to Korea," he said. "I was an ordnance person. And we installed underground
antiaircraft missile systems on the West Coast. That was my job. We put in a missile system in
Hollywood" and in Puget Sound.
"Keep the Russians away, that was our job," he said.
"It was overwhelming," Pratt said of his reaction to the Honor Flight trip.
He spoke of seeing the list of names engraved upon the Vietnam War memorial.
"Those people will never be there," he said. "It’s just hard to believe, when you stand
and look at the Vietnam wall, for example, and think 50,000 people. God. And Korea had 50,000 people,
and that was in three years. It’s just overwhelming.
"Everything went like clockwork, well-planned" Pratt said of the Honor Flight trip. "It
was just great to see these places that I’d never seen. And the people that we were with.
"Just to sit down and talk to" other veterans, he said, and learn "where they went and
what they did. You never know. Everybody has a different story to tell.
"And everybody should make the trip."