Retired US Army SFC John Staudt and US Senator Bob Dole.

On Saturday, May 12, 2007, my brother John Staudt and his wife Pam Morgan, took to the skies and transported 100 WWII veterans to Washington DC to see their WWII memorial. Memorial Flight was created by Pam Morgan, a former Army Nurse Corps Officer originally from Tarboro, NC. The project was inspired by HonorAir, an organization led by Jeff Miller of Hendersonville, NC. To date, HonorAir has flown over 300 western NC WWII Veterans. Pam is a registered nurse and is a member of the nursing faculty at Edgecombe Community College in Tarboro.

The Michigan version of this is called Honor Flight.

Honor Flight Michigan Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to raise funds to send all World War II Veterans, to see their monument free of charge. The story of a pilot being liberated from a German prisoner of war camp by Gen. George S. Patton struck a chord with David and Carole Cameron.

The West Bloomfield couple was watching a CBS news report called “In Their Honor”. It was about a NC man who took WWII veterans to see their monument in Washington DC. One of the Veterans, Lt. Joseph Collins, recalled his last day in Stalag Luft 3 in what is now Zagen, Poland.

“I was looking into the city and I could see the German swastika up there. It started coming down and our flag went up there,” the former POW recalled. “And Patton came in — he came right in on his jeep. That was something.”

The thought of the Stars and Stripes replacing swastikas resonated with the patriotic Camerons. Dave and his wife Carole said “We could do something like that here in Royal Oak. Dave is a longtime Royal Oak businessman. That is how “Honor Flight Michigan Inc.” was born.

Dave is now heading up a state wide effort to take as many WWII veterans as he can on a one-day, all-expenses paid trip to the capital. Dave is working close with the Royal Oak American Legion Post 253. Bud Wease from the American Legion said some of their members wept when they heard about the goal. Many veterans don’t have the funds to travel or they are not in good enough health to travel alone. The Memorial didn’t open to the public till 2004 when the youngest of WWII vets were pushing 80. Today, only 3 million of the 16 million who served are still alive and they are dying at a rate of 1200-1500 per day.

Time is running out to pay them one last tribute and treat them like heroes again if only for 1 day.

Please support this worthy undertaking. Click on this link to get to the Honor Flight website.