“I was wondering what all the noise was,” the Humboldt man said.

David and the rest of the nearly 150 veterans on the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight quickly found out just what all that noise was about.

It was about them.

As soon as they stepped into the terminal at Dulles International Airport, they were in the midst of hundreds of people cheering, clapping, yelling, waving flags and singing patriotic songs. And that boisterous group was there for one reason — to welcome those veterans.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Vietnam Era Army Veteran Tom Salvatore, of Fort Dodge, gives his wife, Pat Salvatore a loss as arrives home at the Fort Dodge Regional Airport from the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight Saturday night. His grandson, Joe Salvatore, 9, of Fort Dodge, gives him a hug. Salvatore served in the 25th Infantry Division.

That welcome set the tone for a day spent visiting the nation’s war memorials in Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery just across the Potomac River in Virginia.

Army veteran Mike Brandrup, of Webster City, seemed to speak for many of the veterans when he summed up the day as “fantastic.”

Brandrup, who served in the 6th Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, had been to Washington before but went on the Honor Flight because it was “an opportunity to be with the people that served.”

The 21st voyage of the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight left Fort Dodge Regional Airport early Saturday morning.

After the raucous welcome at the Virginia airport, the veterans boarded tour buses and headed into Washington, D.C.

The first stop was the end of the National Mall where the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial are located.

Many Vietnam War era veterans were aboard the flight. They spent time scanning the walls for the names of men they knew who died in the war.

One of them was Navy veteran Dana Evans, of Aurelia. He was looking for the names of seven men.

The day’s constant rainfall prevented the veterans from using paper and pencils to make rubbings of names on the wall.

Gregg Wahman, a former Webster City resident now living in Dexter, took some photos instead.

“I believe there’s some closure,” said Wahman, who served in Co. C, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry, which is part of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

The next stop was the United States Navy Memorial.

There Edna Maruska, a 101-year-old Navy veteran of World War II, received a special presentation.

Robert Smith, the archivist of the Memorial, presented her with a copy of her listing in The Navy Log and a Navy Memorial challenge coin.

Smith said the Navy Log is a digital listing providing information and photos of everyone who has served in the Navy, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and Marine Corps.

“This is so central to our mission to have veterans come to see our memorial,” he said after the presentation.

Maruska, who lived in Lake City and now lives in Carroll, was a member of what the Navy called WAVES. That was an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. She served from 1943 to 1945. She was stationed at Hunter College in New York City; Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois; Pasco, Washington; and finally at a Navy hospital in Livermore, California.

Stops at the National World War II Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery followed. At the cemetery, the veterans braved rain and stiff winds to witness the changing of the guard of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“The changing of the guard was miraculous,” said Army veteran Don Waderich, of Humboldt.

He said the sentries at the tomb “command your respect without saying a word.”

While at Arlington National Cemetery, one veteran visited the grave of his wife at the spot where he, too, will eventually be buried.

Max Meier, of West Des Moines, is a United Methodist minister who served as an Army chaplain from 1959 to 1981. He and his wife, Sallie, were married for 55 years before her death.

He said he chose to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery because he has no family living in Iowa.

The day concluded with stops at the United States Marine Corps Memorial, a massive sculpture modeled after the famous photo of Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in February 1945, and the Air Force Memorial, which features curving spires reminiscent of jets soaring into the sky.

While the veterans saw and experienced many things, the rousing welcome at Dulles International Airport clearly made an impression with former service members who did not get any kind of welcome home, or worse, were greeted with disdain.

The hundreds who greeted the Honor Flight lined the airport corridors all the way from the gate to the front door. A color guard of local law enforcement officers stood motionless with the American flag.

“The reception in Washington was unbelievable,” said Army veteran Bob Hickey, of St. Louis, Missouri.

Hickey is a former Fort Dodge resident who is a member of the first graduating class from St. Edmond High School.

Army veteran Tom Salvatore, of Fort Dodge, described the welcome as “heart-warming.”

“It’s just nice to know that people you don’t know that live 1,000 miles away care about your sacrifice and military service,” he said.

Wahman was also impressed by the welcome.

“I knew they would be there, but it was still emotional,” he said. “It was just really neat. And it was nice because they were there because they wanted to be. They gave of their time when they could have been in bed on a Saturday morning.”

The reception in Virginia was not the only big welcome the veterans received.

Another cheering group greeted the return flight at Fort Dodge Regional Airport late Saturday night. Each veteran was introduced as they emerged from the plane to the cheers of those gathered outside the airport terminal.

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