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Quint chosen for Freedom Honor Flight to U.S. Capitol
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| By: Amber Gieseke |
October 21, 2009 |
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The WWII memorial was completed in 2004, and now the Freedom Honor Flight program provides trips to Washington, D.C., for veterans to see their monument. Pictured at the memorial is Chetek resident John Quint, who participated in the flight Oct. 10.
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Although World War II ended in 1945, the national memorial in Washington, D.C., to honor those who fought wasn't completed until 2004. That many years later, most WWII veterans can't make the trip without financial or physical help, which is how the Freedom Honor Flight started. Through this program, one Chetek resident saw the monument that honors him and millions of others.
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"I don't think I had any thanks for being a WWII vet until that day," said John Quint of his day in the Freedom Honor Flight. "I didn't think a thank you was appropriate, but it felt good to hear it."
The group of veterans gathered at the La Crosse Airport around 5 a.m. Oct. 10. The itinerary says the time was for beverages and pastries, but Quint described how the hangar was full of people who wanted to thank the veterans.
"There was a high school glee club and politicians among the crowd," he recalled. "They were wishing us well. As we boarded the plane, there was a group of Boy Scouts who were giving us thanks and shaking our hands."
The thanks continued to Washington, D.C., where Quint said they got off the plane to have around 75 people greeting them with "hugs, handshakes and thanks."
After making their way through the crowd, the veterans boarded a bus to go to the WWII memorial, what the trip was all about.
It was pretty silent when we pulled up to the memorial, remembered Quint.
"It is a huge thing," he said of the monument. "It tries to cover all the bases. You can't really tell anyone about it because it is so vast. Around seven acres, I think."
Fortunately, he has a souvenir book of the memorial and pictures from a disposable camera provided to all veterans on the trip.
Quint said he's seen the memorials in D.C. before and "If you've seen one, you've seen them all, but this one was different."
Maybe it was because it honored him, his friends, his unit and the 16 million soldiers who fought in the war.
Quint was in the 79th Infantry of the Army and toured all over Europe. He deployed Christmas Eve 1944 and returned home in June 1946.
His unit helped liberate a Holocaust camp while on duty. After the war, he was assigned to the 1st Infantry of Military Police, which he said was quite different.
"All those people who were released from the camps wanted to go home, but instead they were put into different camps so not everyone was turned loose at once," Quint explained. "They were called displaced persons, and we were in charge of keeping them calm and breaking up fights. They just wanted to go home, and when they couldn't, sometimes they got violent."
It's different now, he said. Instead of escorting displaced persons home, he was being escorted around D.C. by a guardian provided by the FHF program.
"I can't get around like I used to, but my guardian was by my side the whole time and pushed me around in the wheelchair," Quint smiled.
Without those guardians, many veterans wouldn't be able to make it through the busy day of sightseeing. There was one guardian per two veterans. Quint's teammate was Ray Nehring, 97, of Whitehall. There were 36 veterans from the Minnesota-Wisconsin area in Quint's group, but he didn't personally know any of them.
"I used to keep in touch with those I served with, but now they are all gone," he explained. "I met new people on this trip, though."
After viewing other memorials, the group was brought back to Dulles Airport for the return flight to La Crosse.
"The flight back was the same thing as the flight out, but in reverse," laughed Quint. "But we buzzed the [La Crosse] airport before landing. When we got off the plane, there had to be 500 people there. They compressed themselves so there was a walkway for us to go through. They treated us like royalty or like celebrities at the red carpet events but without the carpet."
He recalled one specific thanks that meant a lot to him.
"There was a little old lady in her 80s or 90s. She was a nurse in WWII maybe and still fit in her outfit. She reached out and kissed me on the cheek and said, 'Thanks.'
"I didn't think thanks was necessary or needed; I had never been thanked before," he noted. "It was gratifying and humbling."
Quint is glad he went, laughing that he almost missed his chance.
"I received a phone call, but hung up on them because I'm used to telemarketers," he chuckled. "The second time, she said, 'Don't hang up! Don't hang up!' so I listened. I'm glad she didn't give up on me, or I would have missed the trip."
It's a trip he's been waiting for two years to go on.
"I found out about this project and got the right number and put my name on the waiting list," he said. "Two years later, it was finally my turn."
To other WWII veterans, he said, "Go. It's a trip you'll never forget. They plan every minute, keep you well-fed and help with anything."
The Freedom Honor Flight is a national program that honors veterans by providing a trip to visit their memorial at no cost to them. Veterans are selected on a first-come, first-served basis.
For more information on the Wisconsin-based program, visit www.freedomhonorflight.org, call (608) 784-1015, or e-mail info@freedomhonorflight.org. Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 505, La Crosse, WI 54602-0505.
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©The Chetek Alert 2009
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