She went mostly to honor her dad, but she really couldn’t have guessed how potently one weekend’s experience could impact her.
“I didn’t. I had a little bit of inkling because of being with my dad. But not this powerful.”
There have been many Honor Flight stories written, but Dansville resident Mary Weld’s is rather unique in several ways. The most striking way is that her father Richard Rutroff, 87, – who had served in World War II and had seen the horrors of Omaha Beach on D-Day, and had been in Italy prior to the Normandy invasion that took him through France and Belgium before the war ended – was connected to the man who started the Honor Flight Network.
Earl Morse, a retired Air Force captain is her dad’s physician assistant at the VA clinic in Springfield, Ohio. According to the Honor Flight’s website (honorflight.org), in 2004 Morse was asking veterans if they had had the chance to visit the recently completed World War II Memorial. Because of their financial situations, the answer he received was inevitably no.
In 2005, Morse, a pilot, asked one veteran if he could fly him down to D.C. to the memorial, which he did, and from there Morse talked other pilots into volunteering their time, money and planes to the cause. The site said that there are now 71 hubs in 30 states (Rochester is one such) and that by the end of 2009, “have transported more than 35,996 veterans of World War II, Korea and Viet Nam to see the memorials built to honor their suffering and sacrifice to keep this great nation free and a world leader.”
She volunteered her time and her money ($300) to get to D.C. as a guardian companion. The other rather unique aspect of her trip was that she was paired up with an Army nurse, 88-year-old Irene Mantisas of Brockport who she described as “spunky as ever.” The two of them quickly became “sewn at the hip,” she said.
She had talked to her father – who was one of the first to fly to D.C. on an Honor Flight – about going as a guardian and he supported her decision telling her, “Go for it. Go … it’ll be an experience of a lifetime.”
“And it has been.”
“I knew what my dad had gone through and that hurt me when I got to the (WWII) Memorial,” she said, and then her emotions took over and she had to take time to compose herself before continuing. “But the one that really got to me is when I went to the Vietnam [Memorial] because I had classmates that died.”
She went mostly to honor her dad, but she really couldn’t have guessed how potently one weekend’s experience could impact her.
“I didn’t. I had a little bit of inkling because of being with my dad. But not this powerful.”
There have been many Honor Flight stories written, but Dansville resident Mary Weld’s is rather unique in several ways. The most striking way is that her father Richard Rutroff, 87, – who had served in World War II and had seen the horrors of Omaha Beach on D-Day, and had been in Italy prior to the Normandy invasion that took him through France and Belgium before the war ended – was connected to the man who started the Honor Flight Network.
Earl Morse, a retired Air Force captain is her dad’s physician assistant at the VA clinic in Springfield, Ohio. According to the Honor Flight’s website (honorflight.org), in 2004 Morse was asking veterans if they had had the chance to visit the recently completed World War II Memorial. Because of their financial situations, the answer he received was inevitably no.
In 2005, Morse, a pilot, asked one veteran if he could fly him down to D.C. to the memorial, which he did, and from there Morse talked other pilots into volunteering their time, money and planes to the cause. The site said that there are now 71 hubs in 30 states (Rochester is one such) and that by the end of 2009, “have transported more than 35,996 veterans of World War II, Korea and Viet Nam to see the memorials built to honor their suffering and sacrifice to keep this great nation free and a world leader.”
She volunteered her time and her money ($300) to get to D.C. as a guardian companion. The other rather unique aspect of her trip was that she was paired up with an Army nurse, 88-year-old Irene Mantisas of Brockport who she described as “spunky as ever.” The two of them quickly became “sewn at the hip,” she said.
She had talked to her father – who was one of the first to fly to D.C. on an Honor Flight – about going as a guardian and he supported her decision telling her, “Go for it. Go … it’ll be an experience of a lifetime.”
“And it has been.”
“I knew what my dad had gone through and that hurt me when I got to the (WWII) Memorial,” she said, and then her emotions took over and she had to take time to compose herself before continuing. “But the one that really got to me is when I went to the Vietnam [Memorial] because I had classmates that died.”
Even though her classmates who didn’t return from Vietnam were running through her head, she said she had promised her husband she would bring him home a pencil impression of this soldier’s name and forgot to take those of her friends.
Her voice once again was checked for a moment from this emotionally charged memory, which then triggered another of that day.
“At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, there is a silence there that – you could hear a pin drop,” she said, and except for the “clicking” of the soldiers’ heels who maintain vigilance at the tomb. “It was like you were in a church.”
She said that time and time again, whether it be at the World War II, the Vietnam, the statue that portrays Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima, the Korean War Memorial, the “forgotten war” she aptly called it; there were moments that she knew the veterans were flashing back to the times when they were young and soldiers.
“The whole thing is powerful. You would have a veteran, all of a sudden, pull out his handkerchief because he had thought of a buddy or a relative.”
The day wasn’t all somber though. She remembered the small poignant times that brought smiles to her and Mantisas as well.
“We had a group of children and their parents that was from a school that shook our hand,” she said, but even the joy of this moment moved her in a bitter-sweet way. “I had to turn away so she wouldn’t see me crying. I was supposed to be the rock.”
Mantisas didn’t share many of her wartime experiences with her, but Weld said that she was able to listen in at other times when Mantisas became the center of attention during the day as well.
“After we left one of the memorials, there would be a group of people there talking to her … and I’d be sitting there in awe. I wished I’d had a recorder with me.”
Serendipity came into play during the trip. While the two sat talking with other veterans at meal, Mantisas and a soldier found out that the two of them had been at one of the hospitals in France she served at. The two didn’t actually remember meeting, but a shared memory from their youth 65 years ago prompted the veteran to kiddingly tell Mantisas that “you’re probably the nurse who gave me all those needles.”
Weld shared many, many more memories of her trip; several that brought smiles and laughter with the recalling, others that would again stop her in her tracks as she had to compose herself to continue. One in particular stood out in particular that summed up for her what these trips mean to the veterans who are given the chance to relive what it was to serve our country.
“They are really troopers because they really got through all this,” she said. “There was one time, when we had our reception when we came back. They were playing each of the armed forces songs. Well, this one – all the service guys … were teary eyed – but, this one guy who had been on a wheelchair all during the trip stood up. Ninety-two years old – stood up out of his wheelchair with a little bit of help and made sure he was standing with his hat off. I’ll never forget it.”
When Weld got back from the trip, she went to Ohio three days later to visit her dad, taking a CD of photos for him to talk about her experiences.
“He said, ‘when are you going again?’ I said, ‘as soon as they’ll let me.’”
Weld said several times that everyone who can, should volunteer to be a guardian if they can so as to see and hear for themselves what our veterans went through. To better appreciate the sacrifices that were made by the few for the many. But, pack your bag correctly.
“I had six handkerchiefs, and out of the six handkerchiefs, only one didn’t get used.”
(For a Photo Gallery of Mary Weld’s Honor Flight trip to D.C., go to the bottom area of the website.)
