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10/4/2007 - Honor Flight effort gets a boost in Prattville

By Marty Roney


October 4, 2007

PRATTVILLE -- A grass-roots effort to honor the area's war veterans got some help Wednesday from the founder of Honor Flight.

Earl Morse met with the steer­ing committee working to form a local chapter of the national nonprofit group that flies veter­ans to Washington to see the na­tion's war memorials.

Honor Flight gives top priori­ty to WWII survivors and those who might be terminally ill.

"The Lord has put on my heart a passion for World War II veterans to see their memorial," Morse said. "There is no way we can repay them for what they have done. They had to wait 60 years for their memorial to be built, and not many of them will be able to see it."

The Veterans Administration estimates that 1,100 WWII veter­ans die every day. Many are in their 80s.

The WWII Memorial opened in May of 2004.

Honor Flight, with its head­quarters in Springfield, Ohio, began flying veterans to Wash­ington in the spring of 2005. The effort has expanded to include chapters in 16 states and has taken more than 3,500 veterans to Washington.

Morse spoke Wednesday in Prattville to about 50 officials and residents working to set up a local Honor Flight chapter, which would be under the um­brella of the national group. Lo­cal chapters raise funds and co­ordinate the flights to Washington, where the national group arranges the veterans' visit.

A retired Air Force captain, Morse works as a physician's assistant at an Ohio Veteran's Administration hospital.

"I was talking with my pa­tients, asking them if they were going to see their memorial," Morse said. "I realized that for physical, financial or other rea­sons, they wouldn't be able to ever see their memorial."

A private pilot, Morse began planning trips to take two or four veterans to Washington in small private planes. As the ef­fort grew, commercial carriers were used. Prattville plans on chartering a commercial airlin­er for the trip.

"These men and women liter­ally saved the world, and they deserve to see their memorial," said Mayor Jim Byard.

Two World War II veterans were in the audience Wednes­day.

Billy Golson is a Navy veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor. He was aboard the sub tender USS Pelias that fateful day in Decem­ber 1941.

"We were lucky. The Japa­nese were after the battle fleet; a little sub tender didn't get much attention," he said. Sub tenders supply and support submarines.

But as fate would have it, his ship was moored near a dry dock where the battleship USS Pennsylvania was in for re­pairs.

"They made a few runs on the Pennsy, and we got some close calls," he said.

Golson hasn't seen the memo­rial.

"I would like to go. I'd like to see it," he said.

Chuck Keene retired after 43 years in the Navy. He is a veter­an of World War II, Korea, Viet­nam and was brought out of re­tirement for a few months during Operation Desert Shield/Storm in the early 1990s. He jokes that he was in the Navy so long, his first job was as Co­lumbus' cabin boy.

His wife sent him and his two sons to see the memorial last year.

"It was part of my 80th birth­day present," Keene said. "When I first got there I just sat down and looked at it for a few minutes. It's a lot to take in."

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