Area veterans take trip to Washington D.C.

Five area veterans joined over 100 others on the Never Forgotten Honor Flight’s 45th mission to Washington D.C.

The Honor Flight, based out of Wausau, took 111 veterans to Washington D.C. to observe memorials of fallen soldiers in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Five veterans, Marv Broeske, Abbotsford, Helmut Bernt, Abbotsford, Wayne Neuman, Colby, Richard Hamann, Curtiss, and Galen Schreiber, Athens, all participated in the event which was free to veterans.

Broeske, who served in the Army National Guard during the Berlin Crisis and spent 1955-1966 in total in the service, said the trip was a fun, but humbling experience.

“It was really a wonderful time,” Broeske said. “The people we went with were great. The volunteers were great. The memorials were great.”

He said if he had to change one thing, it might have been the weather as it rained for a good portion of the tour in the nation’s capitol. Broeske said he has wanted to go on this trip for a long time but it took him three years to be chosen for the Honor Flight.

The trip began on Sunday, September 24 with a meet and greet in Wausau. Food was catered in by 2510 restaurant and a band with live music and a social period. The 111 veterans along with 62 guardians were flown out of Mosinee at 6:30 a.m. and arrived in Washington D.C. a couple of hours later. Four buses picked up the attendees and transported them to the various memorials. Arby’s was catered to the veterans on the buses which normally would have been something that could have been enjoyed at a park or memorial but due to the rain, they had to eat on the bus.

Hamann said one of the things that impressed him the most was the reception the veterans were given when they went place to place. He said in Washington D.C. the buses were given police escorts to go from memorial to memorial. Hamann said when they finally arrived at the Mosinee airport after a long day, there were hundreds of people in attendance waiting to welcome them back from the journey. He said the warm reception was something that was missing from Vietnam veterans when they returned home from the war in the 1960s.

Broeske said he was really impressed with the volunteers that helped facilitate the trip and said he spoke to one of the volunteers that had traveled to Wausau from Minneapolis to help out with the trip.

The trip helped Broeske reflect on his time during the service as he rekindled memories of training at the old armory building in Abbotsford with 100 fellow soldiers. He was able to look back on his time being deployed at Fort Lewis in Washington state and remember those he served with.

“We had some great times and bad times but that is what it’s all about,” Broeske said.

Hamann echoed what Broeske had to say about the event calling it “awesome.”

“It was awesome. It was indescribable what they did for veterans and how they treat you as you’re out there and coming back. I don’t know what words to use. It was just fantastic.”

Hamann said his guardian was someone he hadn’t met before the trip but he got to know the person very well and she was very knowledgeable about the memorial sites and the best way to visit them.

It’s the organization’s 45th flight since the first Never Forgotten Honor Flight took place April 27, 2010. After the September 25 trip, the Never Forgotten Honor Flight has flown 4,297 veterans to Washington, D.C. All veterans that served prior to May 7, 1975 are encouraged to submit an application (via the NFHF web site, or by calling 715-573-8519). The only criteria for veterans to qualify for an Honor Flight is to have served (active duty, reserves or national guard) prior to May 7, 1975, regardless of where they served.

The next flight is scheduled for October 16 and will carry over 100 veterans to see the memorials as well.