Speaker: WWII vets are humble, stoic and proud

• Morse

Honor Flight co-founder Earl Morse acknowledges the veterans in attendance at the beginning of his address as the King Turkey Day featured speaker.
• Honorary turkey

King Turkey Day board president Vida Iten gives featured speaker Earl Morse a turkey statue following his speech Saturday on 10th Street.

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WORTHINGTON — Paycheck may have won the race, but it was the World War II veterans who soaked up the pride, the cheers and the applause on a chilly Saturday afternoon in downtown Worthington.

Gathered together under a canopied, horse-drawn trolley, several veterans from the inaugural Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota had guest-of-honor seating for this year’s King Turkey Day speaker, co-founder of the Honor Flight Network, Earl Morse.

Morse, a retired Air Force Captain, was working as a physician’s assistant for a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Springfield, Ohio, when the World War II Memorial was completed in 2004 in Washington, D.C.

After realizing that many of the World War II veterans he cared for were either physically or financially unable to make the trip to see the memorial built in their honor, Morse, a private pilot, took matters into his own hands. He recruited fellow pilots from the aero club at Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio, to help fly local veterans to Washington. The first flight, in May 2005, included six small planes and 12 veterans.

The trips continued, and in 2007, the Honor Flight Network was established. As of today, more than 53,000 World War II, Korean and Vietnam veterans have been flown, free of charge, to see their memorials in Washington, D.C.

Morse has learned a thing or two about World War II veterans over the years, and on Saturday he shared his reflections on what many call the Greatest Generation.

“A World War II veteran in Minnesota and a World War II veteran in Texas and a World War II veteran in California and Maine — they all have several things in common,” Morse told a crowd that lined both sides of 10th Street for several blocks. “First and foremost, they are the most humble people you will ever meet.

“World War II veterans, collectively and literally, saved the world,” he said as the crowd erupted in applause. “To this day all of Europe is free, all of the Pacific is free and, thank God, America is free.”

Yet to walk up to a World War II veteran and thank him or her for service to this country often comes with the response, “I didn’t do anything — it was my friends, the ones who didn’t make it home.”

More than 400,000 American troops died in World War II. On Iwo Jima, 7,000 soldiers died in just one month; and 20,000 U.S. service members were killed in one battle — the Battle of the Bulge. Putting it into perspective for the younger generation, Morse said 4,000 American troops have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

“I don’t mean to minimize that, trivialize that in any shape or form,” said Morse. “The only reason I bring that up is to bring some perspective to that discussion.”

The cost, the price that was paid by those who served in World War II was incredible he said — just so all of us can be free and live free in this country.

It wasn’t until 65 years after the war that a memorial was finally built in Washington, D.C., to honor the men and women who served in World War II. By then, the youngest veterans of the war were 78, 79 years old, Morse said.

Morse fondly recalled his first experience in asking a World War II veteran to travel with him and his father to see the memorial.

“I was waiting for him to say yes or no, or let me discuss it with my wife,” Morse shared. “I was not ready for him to start crying. And when he started crying, my allergies flared up for some reason — I don’t know why. They just came out of nowhere.”

The second veteran offered a trip had the same reaction.

“They had given up all hope of ever seeing their memorial, and that changed with that one question,” Morse said.

Traveling with World War II veterans to see their memorial, Morse said he didn’t just witness their humbleness and their pride for the American flag, he experienced their stoicism.

“You do anything for these people and they are so grateful. They’re also the most stoic people you will meet,” he shared. “Try and get them in a wheelchair — just try.”

The Honor Flight trip is packed with two days of travel to view not only the World War II Memorial, but the Korean, Vietnam, Lincoln, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force memorials. It’s a lot of walking for men and women now in their mid-80s to 90s.

Morse shared his technique to coax veterans into a wheelchair during the trip, drawing both laughter and applause from the crowd and veterans alike.

“If you’re in a wheelchair, you’re going to get a lot of hugs, you’re going to get a lot of kisses,” he explained. “Because to a woman, puppy dogs, kittens, babies and World War II veterans in wheel chairs — man, they can’t resist you.”

Morse said the guardians who take part in Honor Flight get to do the coolest thing ever — ride on the shirttails of the veterans.

“We get to see everybody clap and praise you and soak all that in. But at the end of the day ... when we’re headed back home ... we have the realization of knowing that every veteran that we’re flying home has a personal, intimate knowledge of how revered, how cherished and how loved they are by this nation,” Morse said, drawing the crowd into yet another round of cheers for the veterans.

“I propose that in 1940, the entire world had no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men and better women as we have represented (here),” he continued. “What a privilege — what an honor it is to be here ... to hang out with some of the most incredible people on the face of this earth.”

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