Veterans prepare for trip of honor
101-year-old WWII vet is ready for Honor Flight
The hundreds of veterans preparing to go to Washington D.C. on the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight each have their own reasons why they are taking the trip.
Navy veteran Edna Maruska can sum up her reason very simply.
Asked what inspired her to go on the Honor Flight Maruska replied ”They told me I could.”
By any standard, the resident of Carroll, who formerly lived in Lake City, has earned her trip to see the nation’s war memorials in Washington.
She is 101 years old and served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. She is the only World War II veteran who will be on the upcoming flight.
Maruska talked about her Navy service Wednesday during the banquet that serves as a prelude to the flight. The banquet was held in the auditorium building at the Webster County Fairgrounds.
”I just thought it would be a good thing to do, so I did it,” she said of her decision to enlist in the Navy.
During World War II, female members of the Navy were known as WAVES, which was an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
Maruska’s Navy service took her to Hunter College in New York City; Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois; and Pasco, Washington, before arriving at Livermore, California. There she worked in a hospital at a base where Navy pilots were trained. She said she worked in the surgical and outpatient departments.
Another passenger on the upcoming flight, Army veteran Jim Gilbert, of Fort Dodge, didn’t serve during a war like Maruska did. He was, however, in South Korea during an incident that seemed like it would lead to war.
Gilbert served from 1973 to 1976. He said he was a ”radio operator and fix-it man” in the 25th Signal Battalion.
The incident that seemed to threaten war involved a tree in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea. According to Gilbert, both sides agreed that the tree should be trimmed. Both sides sent personnel into the DMZ to do that.
Gilbert said there was a disagreement over how the tree should be trimmed. He said a truckload of armed North Korean troops came into the DMZ and in the ensuing incident two Americans were killed.
”The whole country was scared,” Gilbert said. ”We thought sure we were going to war.”
Eventually, the tensions were calmed without any more bloodshed.
Gilbert said his brother and brother-in-law encouraged him to go on the Honor Flight.
He recalls them saying ”If you get a chance, you need to go.”
During the trip, Gilbert will be paired with one of his neighbors, Gary Vaughn. Vaughn was in the Army’s 25th Infantry Division from 1962 to 1965. He said he did fire direction control for the artillery.
Vaughn, who has never been to Washington, said he is looking forward to seeing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Former Army aviator Edward Allen, of Humboldt, visited Washington while he was stationed at Fort Eustis in Virginia. However, much of his active duty military service was at Fort Riley, Kansas, with the 18th Aviation Co. One of his jobs was to fly personnel and equipment to remote Nike missile silos. He later served as a pilot for the Iowa State Patrol and was police chief in Humboldt.
The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight will leave Fort Dodge Regional Airport early in the morning of May 7. It will land at Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. There, the veterans will board buses for a tour of the nation’s war memorials. They will return to Fort Dodge late that night.