Honor Flight at Home recognizes veterans from Marion and other communities

Honor Flight at Home organizer Margie Saull hopes the program will keep growing and is asking area veterans and their families to reach out to other veterans and invite them to participate.

Saull, whose father is a World War II veteran, spearheaded the effort to make Honor Flight at Home a reality in Marion and the first program was held in 2018.

It's an offshoot of the national Honor Flight organization that provides trips to the nation's capital at no cost to veterans of World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars. Veterans and their chaperones visit various memorials during the one-day trip to Washington.

Saull said through Honor Flight at Home she is committed to offering a positive experience for those veterans who are not able to make the trip to the nation's capital. She said the comradery veterans experience with each other during the Honor Flights to Washington as well as the Honor Flight at Home events provides a lasting memory.

"We took my dad to an Honor Flight at Home in Florida and the veterans were very responsive and it was a wonderful afternoon," she said. "So, I decided to come back to Marion and start one here. I worked with Honor Flight Columbus for about a year to convince them that there was a need here in Marion. It's not just open to Marion County folks. If you're able to travel about an hour or two to get to Marion, you're welcome to come."

Saull said 32 veterans attended the first event in Marion followed up by 27 attending in 2019 and 17 this year. The event was canceled for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2022 event was held last Saturday at Tri-River Career Center with a World War II veteran, 10 Vietnam War veterans, three Korean War veterans, two Cold War veterans, and one veteran whose service overlapped both Vietnam and the Cold War.

At age 96, United States Navy veteran Angus Barton was the oldest former military man to be recognized during the Honor Flight at Home event in Marion. His son Ken accompanied him to the ceremony. The elder Barton said he was glad he and other veterans had the chance to participate in the event.

Barton, who served in the Pacific Theater during World War II aboard the transport ship U.S.S. Noble, said despite the fact that those men and women who brought the country to victory in World War II are known as "The Greatest Generation," he and others who served never considered themselves to be special.

"I don't think we did. I don't remember what we thought," he said humbly. "But I don't think we thought of ourselves like that."

Col. Christopher A. Acker, U.S. Army retired, was the keynote speaker for the Marion Honor Flight at Home event on Saturday. He spoke about the difficulty many veterans experience in sharing their combat memories with anyone outside of the veteran community.

"Veterans normally don't talk about their service to anyone except another veteran," said Acker, who served in the Army for 39 years. "If you have a combat veteran in your family, my guess is they have never sat down and talked to you about their service. But if a buddy stops by the house who served with them, watch, they'll go into another room somewhere or out in the yard and they'll pick up right where they left off. They'll talk. But they won't talk to you.

"You'll have to drag it out of them. Anyone who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, they don't want to talk about it, and for good reason. Number one, if you weren't there, you're probably not going to believe what they say anyway. And number two, they don't want to bring those memories back up."

In closing, Col. Acker shared a letter that President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a Massachusetts widow whose five sons were killed during the Civil War.

Following is the content of Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby:

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

Col. Acker also thanked Saull and the Honor Flight at Home volunteers for hosting the program for area veterans.

"I think it's great that we can honor veterans and show them that you don't have to Washington, D.C., to be recognized by your country and your community," he said. "You can do it right at home."

Veterans or their families interested in attending an Honor Flight at Home event in Marion can contact Margie Saull by email at saullgw4@yahoo.com or by telephone at 740-360-8902.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter 

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Honor Flight at Home honors veterans from Marion and other communities