Making Vets' Impossible Possible

They came from the skies, as so many of them had done before. Decades ago, saving the world. No questions asked.

They came this time in a squadron of seven small planes, one after another, bringing old men to see something that belonged to them, but seemed impossibly out of reach.

Said one to Jeff Hirsh or WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, "I never thought I'd make it, really."

The passengers? A dozen World War II veterans.

The pilots: all volunteers from Ohio.

The name of the program: "Honor Flight."

The destination: the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.

Until "Honor Flight," reports Hirsh, veterans such as Leonard Loy had no chance to make it to the memorial. They were too infirm for a ten-hour car or bus ride, or couldn't afford a plane ticket.

Loy would have lived out his days unable to see America's thank you.

That is, until Earl Morse, a physician's assistant in Springfield, Ohio, asked Loy, one of his patients, whether Loy had any plans to go, whether Loy would ever see the memorial.

"And his answer was, 'No. No. No,' " Morse says.

But Morse, a former Air Force medic, said something else: "I'm renting an airplane. Wanna go?"

"I was ready for him to say, 'Yes" or 'No' or 'Let me check with my wife,' " Morse recalls. "I wasn't ready for him to start crying. …And that's when I knew we were onto something."And so, "Honor Flight" was born.

Loy joined the Navy and took part in four invasions.

William Taylor joined the Army and wound up as a German POW.

To him, as well, the memorial was just a distant dream: "I never thought I'd make it. I wouldn't, if it hadn't been for Mr. Morse. He's a splendid man, and all the people that help him, too."

Taylor, 80 like Loy, navigated the memorial in a scooter. A stroke ten years ago made much walking impossible.

"I'm going to set right here and relax. Soak it all up," he marveled.

And the vets were appreciated themselves, Hirsh observes. Handshakes. Pictures. Thoughts of what could have been, should have been.

"I wish," Taylor says, "all who passed before this was built could have seen it. It would have been a treat for all of them."

The volunteer pilots would like to bring more veterans to the memorial, one group a month through summer and fall.

But, Hirsh points out, time is truly of the essence: Since planning for "Honor Flight" began in January, 9 of the veterans who wanted to come to the memorial have passed away.

Some 160 more are on the waiting list, in southern Ohio alone.

"I know," Morse says, "that's an insurmountable task, but when I'm their age and I'm sitting in a wheelchair on their front porch asking myself, 'What have you done that's significant?' I hope I can look back and say, 'I did everything I could to get the greatest generation of veterans to their memorial.'"

Asked if he was tired, one veteran responded, "No, I'm not tired. I'd do it all over again if I had to. I really enjoyed it."