Honor Flight

It has been more than two weeks since Bob Christensen returned from Washington, D.C., and he's still grinning ear to ear.

The 87-year-old Christensen, born and raised in Aurora, was one of dozens of Fox Valley World War II veterans aboard Honor Flight Chicago's maiden voyage on June 11 to the World War II Memorial in our nation's capital. It was Christensen's first trip to the World War II Memorial, and he got to go for free.

This is what Honor Flight does. The Chicago chapter, which incorporated earlier this year, has been busy finding as many World War II vets as possible and offering them a visit to their memorial. The vets pay for nothing, and they get the trip of a lifetime. And if you ask Christensen, that's exactly what his flight was.

Christensen made the trip with his son, Frank, three other vets from the Aurora area, and an Army buddy from Wisconsin he hadn't seen in years. Christensen was in the Army National Guard for two years and served in occupied Japan during the war.

Being honored this way, with fellow veterans by his side, brought memories flooding back.

"When we got into Dulles (International Airport in Washington), there were people there with banners and clapping for us," he said. "I had to have a little cry."

June 11 marked Honor Flight Chicago's first trip, after months of planning. Their second is set for today, when dozens more Fox Valley veterans will get their free flight to the memorial. The Honor Flight staff have asked that the big surprises in store for the vets remain a secret (you'll get full details when The Beacon News accompanies today's flight), but those taking the June 11 trip did offer some glimpses.

"It's an intense, long day that honors an intense, long period in our history," said Frank Christensen.

The younger Christensen served as a guardian on the trip. Guardians pay their own way and are there to make the veterans' day more comfortable and enjoyable. Honor Flight works with Southwest Airlines, taking the vets on regularly scheduled flights from Chicago to Washington. The trip is one day only and takes a total of about 18 hours.

"It took me about three days to recuperate," said Astor Carlson, of North Aurora, a 22-year veteran of the Marine Corps. "But it was wonderful."

Throughout the trip, safety is the most important concern. Fully trained guardians were everywhere, the elder Christensen said, and anytime a veteran needed something, it was provided.

"I've never seen such care given to veterans," he said. "It doesn't matter where you were, they had wheelchairs, guardians and water for you. They did a tremendous job."

Christensen's son backs him up on that. As a guardian, Frank Christensen had to attend a two-hour training class, which he said was thorough in its concern for the veterans' health and safety. He even got tips on how to comfort veterans who may need it.

Carlson was given a wheelchair and a guardian for his entire day. Carlson suffers from arthritis and uses a cane to get around. But for his day in Washington, he got his own chauffeur.

The visit to the World War II Memorial is the centerpiece of the trip. The memorial opened in 2004, nearly 60 years after the end of the war, and after many of the vets it honors had already died. The surviving veterans are mostly in their 80s and 90s, and for most seeing the memorial for the first time promises to be an emotional experience.

"It sort of hit me down deep," said Carlson. "It was beautiful. It was awesome just looking at it."

This wasn't Carlson's first time in Washington -- he was stationed there for three years in the 1950s. But he said it's changed a lot since he'd been there last, and he'd never seen the World War II Memorial.

The veterans also get to go to the Iwo Jima, Lincoln, Korean War and Vietnam War memorials during their trip. And at each step of the way, they are honored with banners and color guards and people just there to thank them for serving their country so many years ago. For Frank Christensen, that's what Honor Flight is all about.

"People don't realize how free we are," he said, "and how dramatically different our lives would be if they didn't win that war."

For his father, the Honor Flight trip was a chance to remember, reconnect and reminisce. For him, and for many veterans, it's an honor long in coming.

"I got more satisfaction out of this deal than I did coming back to the U.S., with no one there to greet us," he said. "It was wonderful."