Local veterans journey to war memorial

July 18, 2008 04:24 pm

— By Adam Smith
The North Jefferson News

Two local veterans recently embarked on a chance-of-a-lifetime trip to Washington, D.C., to honor those who served and to be honored for their service.
Dennis Smith of Warrior and Jim Kendrick of Gardendale were part of Honor Flight Birmingham’s July 9 trip to the nation’s capitol. The purpose of the trip is to take World War II veterans to Washington to visit the World War II memorial.
The memorial was dedicated in 2004 and was a pet project of former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, also a World War II veteran. Dole regularly meets with Honor Flight groups while they are in Washington and did the same with Smith and Kendrick’s group. “He’s a politician, but it was nice of him to take time to visit with the Alabama people,” Smith said.
Smith, who enlisted out of Hamilton, served in the U.S. Army in Lurgashall, England. “I was the luckiest guy out of Marion County,” Smith said. “I didn’t see any combat.”
He said he made a mistake when he registered in 1942 when he asked to be put in the next draft. “Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it,” he said.
Smith, who served from 1943 to 1946, worked six days a week and 16 hours a day repairing and rebuilding diesel engines for the Navy. “We didn’t have a whole lot of fun right then,” he said.
Smith said he read about the honor flight in a newspaper. He filled out an application, returned it and was accepted. He said while he was able to do a little sight-seeing in Washington with the rest of the group, the memorial was the highlight.
“It was an emotional thing; it was beautiful,” he said.
Like Smith, Kendrick also didn’t see combat, but served on a ship in the South Pacific. “We were zigging and zagging,” he said. “It’s a good thing it never caught up with us because we couldn’t have swam that far.”
Kendrick, originally from Johnson City, Ill., enlisted in 1944 and was in the China Sea when the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. “By then, I had enough points to get out, so I caught a ship and came home.”
Kendrick said his nephew, Eddie Culpepper, was instrumental in convincing him to go see the memorial.
“It was a great experience for me,” he said. “I had donated to it [the memorial], but I didn't’ think I’d ever get to see it.”
Like Smith, he said it was a great experience, but also very emotional.
“It was a heart-touching trip, especially if you go to Arlington [National Cemetery] and you think about your buddies that didn’t make it,” he said.
Honor Flight Birmingham co-director Pam Nichols said it is the group’s mission to fly as many area veterans to the memorial as possible, because more and more of them are in failing health or passing away.
“The figures we’re seeing are 1,200 to 1,400 passing away each day,” she said.
The July flight was the second trip this year. The first was April 30 and the next flight will be Sept. 30.
Nichols said the veterans are chosen on a first come, first servedº basis. The applications are dated as they are received and veterans are then contacted by the group.
Nichols and co-director Amy McDonald began the Birmingham chapter of Honor Flight last fall. She said she was watching a television program about the national Honor Flight program and decided she wanted to be a part of it.
“I was deeply moved by what I saw,” she said. “We need to honor these guys.”
There are two other Honor Flight groups in the state that operate out of Huntsville for the northern half of the state and Prattville for the lower half.
The group is also affiliated with the American Legion to enjoy use of that organization’s non-profit status. Honor Flight Birmingham relies on donations from corporations, civic groups and citizens to help fund the flights from Birmingham International Airport to Washington.
Each veteran on the trip is assigned designated guardians who look after their needs. The guardians attend mandatory pre-flight training sessions and make a donation to cover their own expenses for the trip.
For more information on Honor Flight Birmingham, visit www.honorflightnbirmingham.com.

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