EV father-son veterans embark on Honor Flight

Jun. 2—World War II veteran Dean Donalds and his son, Vietnam veteran Jeff Donalds, last week made a solemn visit to the nation's capital and its memorials to their respective times of service, courtesy of Honor Flight Arizona.

The state hub of the national Honor Flight Network, Honor Flight Arizona treated Jeff, 74, and his 94-year-old father to the trip, which included visits to the World War II and Vietnam Veterans memorials.

"If we don't understand our past, we're bound to repeat them," Jeff said. "Right now, we have issues all over the world and our younger generation doesn't understand what can come of it."

The Donalds joined 31 other veterans and support staff from Honor Flight Arizona as part of the nonprofit's mission of taking World War II, Cold War, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans to see memorials to the conflicts that raged when they had donned a uniform in service to the country.

Since its inception in 2005, Honor Flight's network of 124 hubs across the country and its volunteers have coordinated flights, bus trips, welcome home ceremonies, thousands of phone calls and trips for over 275,000 veterans.

Through donations, the nonprofit pays $1,300 on average per veteran to stay in a Baltimore hotel before taking a charter bus to see various military sites and memorials around Washington, D.C., including the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

A trip to Arlington will mean even more to the Donalds.

It is the burial site of John Howard Donalds — Jeff's great uncle — who died on Nov. 1, 1918.

The Donalds' ancestor originally served during World War 1 and was killed and buried in France before he was recovered and interred a year later at Arlington.

Following the day-long excursion, the veterans enjoyed dinner at a local American Legion.

Naval veterans like Jeff also were afforded a trip to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Dean hails from Minnesota and enlisted in the Army in 1946, serving less than two years in an artillery unit.

Like the military often does, Dean said he found himself working on a separate detail.

Dean and five other soldiers in the First Cavalry Division spent five months locating the burial sites of deceased American service members and reporting them back to graves registration to return the remains back home.

"I never saw another American for five months," Dean said.

Although Dean has spent the last three years battling dementia, Jeff said his father still recalls a lot from the war, including seeing Gen. Douglas MacArthur during a parade in Tokyo.

Despite orders to keep his eyes forward while driving his truck, Dean said he couldn't help but turn his head to get a glimpse of the revered general.

"No way am I going to drive by General MacArthur and not look," Dean said.

Despite dementia and a heart condition, Dean still manages to live alone at his home in Gold Canyon and has lived there more than 30 years to escape the cold Minnesota winters.

Although Dean's wife passed away in 2018, just shy of their 70th anniversary, Jeff regularly visits his dad to check on him and bring him food from his favorite Mexican restaurant.

As a young college student in Minnesota, Jeff foresaw his draft number being called and originally wanted to follow in his dad's Army footsteps. He had looked into the Warrant Officer program to become a pilot, but that never panned out.

"So, I tried to find the safest path to get through the military," Jeff said. "I didn't want to be on a medevac. I wanted a guarantee on a gunship."

Instead, Jeff enlisted in the Navy in 1968 and spent time aboard an aircraft carrier in 1969 as a weapons ordnance technician.

A year later, Jeff found himself boots on the ground in Binh Thuy, Vietnam.

Known as the "brown water Navy," Jeff served during Operation Game Warden, a joint operation between the U.S. and South Vietnamese Navy patrolling the Mekong River Delta to intercept Viet Cong supply routes.

Jeff returned home proud of his service but soon escaped the frigid winters of the north for the warmer climate of Arizona at age 38.

He has spent the last 36 years married to his wife Linda and the last 30 years owning his own insurance brokerage.

Linda Donalds spent years trying to convince her husband to join organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.

"Because then you would be around people that have served and you guys would have some camaraderie," Linda said. "But also to be able to share stories and just maybe get out some of that."

"Glad-I'm-here-syndrome," Dean pipes in.

Prior to the Honor Flight, Linda was looking forward to hearing her husband and father-in-law talk about their trip.

"That's really cool because then they are learning about what Honor Flight is but also what it means to be a vet and to serve your country," Linda said.