BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com
The saying that 24-hours can change your life is true.
In the 24-hours that Michael and Mason McAnally were on an Honor Flight in June, their lives were changed. What they didn’t realize until the end of the Honor Flight, though, is that those 24-hours would also change the lives of the Veterans they were with.
When Michael, who works at State Farm in Bloomington, read an article in his office about someone who’d gone on an Honor Flight with a WWII vet, he was immediately struck.
“It never left my mind,” he said.
“There was something there; I always thought that I should do it.”
By the time his son Mason celebrated his next birthday, Michael asked if he might be interested in going on an Honor Flight with him as a gift.
“It was just as much a present for me than it was for him,” Michael said.
Once Mason agreed, Michael contacted the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight Group, which has served 4,454 Illinois veterans on 57 flights, to begin the process of applying.
The application and interview process led to the McAnallys being paired with three men who all served in Vietnam.
“At that time, all three of our guys were walkers, healthy, no option required, no wheelchairs, anything like that,” Michael said.
Usually, Veterans and Guardians, the men and women who accompany the Vet, are a one-to-one ratio. The men’s healthy status made it possible for Michael to be paired with two men and Mason to be paired with one.
With Mason in college, Michael met with each Vet, calling one who lived a few hours away, then visiting with the two men who lived nearby, and their wives.
Michael learned that Paul, who fought as a B52 pilot in the Vietnam War, married his wife Kathy five days before he got shipped out. While Paul was away on missions, Kathy went to Guam to be nearby.
“While she was there, there was a raid,” Michael said. “He was away from the squad, and during the raid his entire squad was killed. That affected him greatly.”
The men Michael talked to were fairly tight-lipped when it came to war stories. Michael said being beside their wives often helped him see a bigger picture.
“They would fill in anything that they’d miss,” Michael said. “Sometimes they knew more than their Vet. They were just so close.”
Getting to know the men was not the only thing Michael needed to do; he was also responsible for taking down their medical needs to ensure that everything was covered for the trip. Then, a week before the trip took place, Michael had to call them to make sure nothing had changed.
By that time, two men were in wheelchairs, one from surgery and one because of health reasons, and one of the wives had passed away.
The Land of Lincoln Honor Flight Group made all the necessary updates for the Vets.
Heading into the Honor Flight, 21-year old Mason, was nervous.
“He hadn’t had as much experience talking to somebody in that age group or in war,” Michael said.
During the pre-flight dinner provided by the local VFW in Springfield with the Vets, Mason learned that he had nothing to be nervous about.
“I think it took him 10 minutes to realize he was going to have a lot of fun,” Michael said.
“They just didn’t really think about his age at all. And we just all talked the same.”
The group got up at 3 a.m., reported to the airport, flew to Washington D.C., visited the Vietnam War Memorial, then returned to Springfield by 9:30 p.m.
“But what was amazing was I didn’t see a single Vet, even remotely take a nap. There was always something going on the entire time.
“Once we flew out, everybody was so excited that everybody was just jabbering all the time.”
Once the plane landed, and schedules were passed out, a police escort made sure the three buses arrived at the Nation’s Capitol.
“We had a motorcycle in the front and an officer in the back. When you have those, you cut through everything like butter.”
As traffic parted, the Vets stood to look outside the window.
“Even our WWII guys standing up looking over our bus seats, just cheering and having a blast because the officer was pushing these people out of the way,” Michael said. “They felt like they were royalty.
“It was very emotional to me at the moment.”
The group spent about 25 minutes at the Navy Memorial, the Air Force Memorial, then drove past the Pentagon.
“We were able to see the damage and breadth of (what happened during 9-11),” Michael said.
They visited the Iwo Jima Memorial then spent about an hour-and-a-half at the WWII Memorial. They could see the Washington Monument, then went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial, as well.
McAnally said that the men wanted to make it up to the top of the Lincoln Memorial, but when they got in the elevator, the alarm went off.
“I guess we broke it,” Michael said.
Paul, who was still mobile, was able to make his way up the stairs and back down.
“When I came back down, I saw a WWII guy just really somber with his guardian,” Michael recalled.
Michael, as the guardian, asked what was going on, and he learned that the Vet really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial, but couldn’t because the elevator was broken.
“So I felt really bad,” he said.
With the help of the man’s guardian, the men were able to carry the Vet in his wheelchair up the 50 steps to make his wish come true.
“It was worth every second because he just teared up,” he said. “It was all worthwhile.”
The emotions the group were feeling became even more somber as they visited Arlington National Cemetery to see the Changing of the Colors.
“I was exhausted because it was the most emotional day I’ve ever had, or probably close to it,” Michael said. “Whether it was for myself, or seeing all the Vets that would constantly be fighting back the tears.”
As the Vets boarded the plane and took off to return to Illinois, they heard their name called in the Mail Call.
As the Chief Petty Officer read the men or women’s names, they raised their hands to get their mail pouch.
“All the guardians would ask the spouses or emergency contacts to write cards and letters and thank yous,” Michael said. “Some even got kids to write letters at school.
“That’s why we didn’t sleep on the way back.”
Sitting between the two Pauls, Michael wondered why neither man was opening their pouch. He believed it was because the emotions of the entire day were too much for them, but Michael said that they weren’t too manly to open their satchel.
Kathy, who wanted to make sure that Paul had everything that he needed for the trip, ran out of time, and didn’t write a letter.
Instead, she took all of their love letters from the war and placed them in an envelope.
Michael had to make special last-minute arrangements to have the letters included in the satchel. As Paul looked through the bag, he saw what his wife had done, and continued to rummage through until Michael encouraged him to stop.
“He pulled out an orange old tattered letter,” he said. “I think he know exactly which love letter it was. And he immediately started tearing up.”
The thing Michael enjoyed most about the trip was providing that space for the Vets to look back in a safe way and to allow them to express their emotions.
“The one thing I really liked about the experience is the non-stop affection that we had for each other,” he said.
Sharing the experience with his son was also paramount.
“I just wanted us to be together and experience it together,” Michael said. “And I wanted him to be able to understand the importance of what they meant to us and what they did for the country and the hardships they had to go through.
“Some lost family and friends and I wanted him to see that.”
Michael hopes that as his youngest son, Mitchell gets older, he, too, will take the trip with him.
“I literally cannot wait to go again,” Michael said. “It makes that much of a difference.”
Even after all of the emotions and experiences Michael had experienced that day, he didn’t fully realize the healing that took place until they came out of the airport.
Throughout the day, Vets who needed a wheelchair were encouraged to stay in the wheelchair as much as possible to conserve energy.
But as the Vets saw the crowd waiting for them as the exited the plane, those who could walk decided they would not sit anymore.
“There were so many people there,” Michael said. “It was overwhelming.
“There must have been 150 people probably just in that one section, 15 deep, maybe. It was just so explosive.
“I mean, it was like something hit you and then you were immediately trying to control your emotions.
The crowd was filled with fellow Veterans, some of whom were wearing their Honor Flight shirts, as well as family and friends.
“Then there be another set of people, we’d make a turn and another,” he said. Some of these people were just there to honor them. They were there for two hours in 100-degrees just so we could walk through.
“They said, ‘Welcome Home,’ and ‘Thank you for your service.’
“I was kind of taken aback at one point in time somebody thanked me.”
At one moment, Michael came behind Paul who was crying.
Michael said, “Should I tell you a joke?”
Paul replied, “this is the greatest thing ever. When I came back the first time they spit at me, and now they’re thanking me.”
