Life & Island Times: Honor Flight 42

Author’s Note: After a long break in the tales of my long ago road travels in the southern building trades here is something new.

– Marlow

December 22 2019

Honor Flight 42

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Shipmates and I have funded in the past several Navy veterans’ honor flights, helped other honorees fly off and celebrated their trips at both ends of their journeys. But, early in September 2019 was the first time I was asked to write a letter to one of them for Honor Flight Dallas Fort Worth #42, courtesy of my Texas brother-in-law. Edward is a Korean War dogface, a M4 tanker by trade (yup, African Americans had to pilot those old WW II pieces of crap versus better equipped Soviet stuff). I am a squid by trade and by family tradition stretching back through two world wars and beyond.

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Honor Flight 42’s Edward

Needless to say, I was bit lost regarding how to talk vet-to-vet to someone who to me was a member of a “foreign” armed service. We squids all “stood the watch” like the old poem recounts. Our brethren in green “stood at their posts,” so . . .

September 11, 2019

Dear Sir,

During your war years
You stood at your post

While the rest of us were in our beds at night
You stood at your post

While many of us were in school learning our ABCs
You stood at your post

Yes . . . even before most of us were born into this world
You stood at your post

In those years with clouds of war storming over the world
You stood at your post

In the cold, the rain, the snow, the heat,
You stood at your post

Many times you would hope for a mail call envelop
Casting an eye eastward waiting for some family news
Needing but a few words to hold onto during hard times
But even empty handed, still you stood at your post

You stood at your post during an almost forgotten war
So that we, our families and
Your countrymen could sleep soundly and safely every night
Knowing that a soldier stood at his post

Today I am writing to say
Soldier . . . you and your war will never be forgotten

Thank you so much for standing at your post.

– Marlow
US Navy 1973-1994

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We all, vet and non-vet, should support these flights no matter our means. These national treasured gems are quietly slipping through our fingers.