After presenting the program at Tuesday’s Kewanee Rotary meeting on Honor Flight of the Quad Cities, Chuck Missel, second from left, of the group’s board of directors, talks with Navy veteran and Rotary member Bill Stewart, right; Pearl Harbor survivor Leon DeKeyser of Kewanee, second from right; and program chairman Mark Schueneman.
Dying at the rate of around 1,200 a day, it is estimated that within 10 years there will be no living veterans of World War II left in the U.S.
Chuck Missel, a retired Army lieutenant colonel from Davenport, told the Rotary Club of Kewanee Tuesday that getting the remaining veterans of that war to Washington, D.C. to see the memorial built in their honor is the main goal of Honor Flight of the Quad Cities.
Founded nationally in 2008, the Honor Flight Network has grown to include 94 hubs in 35 states. The Quad Cities hub has raised funds to fly 1,288 veterans from western Illinois and eastern Iowa on 13 flights to Washington in the last two years to see the WW II and other military memorials.
“We are now filling our 14th flight, which will leave the Quad Cities April 16,” said Missel, a member of the Honor Flight of the Quad Cities Board of Directors.
Missel said after the memorial was dedicated in 2004 it was realized that many of those whose sacrifice it honors would never see it since WW II veterans were dying at a rapid rate and many of those still living lacked the funds or physical stamina to make the trip on their own.
Each charter flight carries between 90 and 100 veterans and their Guardians, a family member or volunteer assigned to accompany each veteran on the one-day round trip. Guardians pay their own way at $550.
Top priority is given to the most senior veterans, survivors of WW II, and any veteran with a terminal illness. Veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars are next in line.
Missel said each flight costs around $90,000, paid entirely from donations and fund-raisers such as the Honor Flight benefits sponsored by the Filling Station and held the last two summers in the Bishop Hill village park. The program receives no government funding.
The entire trip is free of charge to each veteran. To assist disabled veterans, Honor Flight provides oxygen, wheelchairs and scooters as needed. The flights include tour bus service, T-shirts, meals and other amenities.
Applications for veterans, Guardians and volunteers for Honor Flight of the Quad Cities are available online at www.honorflightqc.com, or by calling QC hub director Bob Morrison at (563) 388-3271.
Missel said there are about 200 veterans on the waiting list. Plans are to make at least five flights a year between April and November, if funding is available. Last year there were as many as 700 on the waiting list.
Tax-deductible donations may be sent to Honor Flight of the Quad Cities at 4130 Northwest Blvd., Davenport, Iowa, 52806.
Program chairman Rotarian Mark Schueneman introduced Leon DeKeyser, one of three remaining survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor still living in Kewanee. DeKeyser took the flight to the WW II Memorial last year.
“Anyone who is eligible should go,” DeKeyser said. “It’s really great and they take very good care of you.”
Other Kewanee Pearl Harbor survivors include Joe Giorno and Tom Kirley.
Schueneman said Kewanee native Lt. Col. (Ret.) Duane Lempke, who now lives in the Washington, D.C. area and is a professional photographer, has published a book of photos of the WW II Memorial entitled “Tribute.” Schueneman said Lempke’s inspiration for the book was his father, the late Herman C. “Bud” Schueneman, a WW II veteran.
“Duane came to present Dad with his copy of the book on the day he died so he never saw it,” Schueneman said. “He also never got to visit the memorial but he wanted to make sure as many others as possible did.”
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