Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Retired Lt. Col. Edward Tyre was presented with the French Legion of Honor over the weekend in Madison for his efforts in helping liberate France.
World War II veteran Lt. Col. Edward Tyre of Brookfield received France's highest military decoration for his courage in flying combat missions during the war. Paul Graham, the general consul of France in Chicago, presented the French Legion of Honor to Tyre in a ceremony on Saturday where he was thanked for helping liberate the French, reported the Wisconsin National Guard. Tyre, 88, enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 and flew 50 combat missions over Italy, France and Germany from October 1944 to April 1945. The Legion of Honor is the equivalent to the U.S. Medal of Honor. "When Lt. Col. Tyre graduated high school in 1942, our nation was still reeling from the deadly attack at Pearl Harbor and Europe was under Nazi rule," said Maj. …
Friday, August 24, 2012
Wings Over Waukesha brings back memories of flying Air Force plane for World War II pilot.
Merv Karl flew his 35th and final mission on a B-17 more than 67 years ago. While he’s poked his head in one of the World War II planes since then, he hasn’t been in the air on a B-17 for nearly seven decades. That is, until Friday. The 90-year-old Park Ridge, IL, resident rode in the B-17 Aluminum Overcast at the Waukesha County Airport Friday during a special media flight in preparation for the Wings Over Waukesha air show this weekend. “It brought back memories,” said Karl after stepping foot off the airplane. “I can’t believe it was that noisy. … The whole thing was pretty much the way I remembered.” The flight made him reminisce about a low-flying mission over Scotland. He was in his 20s, serving as a pilot with the Eighth Air Force. …
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Miller Park is the site for a day of honor and remembrance for veterans from the greatest generation and then some, breaking a world record in the process.
The showing of a documentary based on the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight brought tears to the eye, cheers from the crowd and broke a record for attendance. "Field of Honor," a documentary based on the journey of veterans to visit their war memorials in Washington, D.C., had its premier showing at Miller Park to a nearly sold-out crowd estimated at 33,000. Official totals confirmed by a representative of the Guiness Book of World records put the exact attendance at 28,442. The Honor Flight Network began in 2004 when Earl Morse, a retired air force captain and physician's assistant at a VA clinic in Ohio realized most of his patients who were World War II vets had neither the funds nor the physical ability to make the trip to see their own …
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Event at Miller Park brought together thousands of veterans and their families where they shared their stories of war, bravery and true love.
A sobering statistic flashed across the screen at Miller Park during the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight Field of Honor film debuted Saturday night. “One-thousand World War II veterans die every day.” As the veterans pass, so goes the chance to honor them, to hear their stories and to learn from the Greatest Generation. But honor flights throughout the state allow for those veterans to be honored and appreciated and to share their stories with the rest of the world. Martin Videkovich, of Caledonia, fittingly was sworn into the U.S. Navy on July 4, 1942, before he was shipped out to the Pacific. He recently had the chance to see the World War II Memorial when he went on the June Honor Flight. For Videkovich, the highlight of the trip “was …
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Hundreds of World War II Era veterans are treated to a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit their memorial. It's a journey that has been repeated several times before, but never gets old.
Most veterans are modest about their service, but often what details they won't tell you, their families will. Waiting for their heroes to come back from the latest Honor Flight at General Mitchell International Airport on a day that began 15 hours before, families wearing shirts with much younger faces in uniform are eager to share who they are waiting for. Richard Lyon of Glendale had a whole posse of family members, identifiable by gray shirts bearing his picture from the United States Navy. He served on the USS Requin, a naval submarine, in the Pacific theatre, although his enlistment would come just as surrender was declared. He had first attempted to enlist as a 16-year-old, lying about his age. However, his mother found out before …
Annie Nominous
10:55 pm on Sunday, August 26, 2012
To Sarah Millard - were you on the flight? Great photos! more ›