Freedom Honor Flight ‘one of the best days’ of Gust Fehr’s life

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By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX — After being on the waiting list for six years, Colfax resident Gust Fehr was finally able to go on the Freedom Honor Flight out of La Crosse to Washington D.C. Saturday, September 11.

“I wouldn’t trade (the Freedom Honor Flight) for any vacations I’ve ever had. It was one of the best days of my life,” said Gust, who was accompanied by his son, Bob Fehr.

The flight on September 11 marked the 20th anniversary of the three airplanes that on September 11, 2001, terrorists flew into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C., with one plane crashing in a field in Pennsylvania.

All together, nearly 3,000 people were killed during the attacks.

The flight on September 11 also was the 25th Freedom Honor Flight out of LaCrosse and carried 16 Korean War veterans and 77 Vietnam War veterans, along with their guardians.

The 25th Freedom Honor Flight was the first flight that did not have any World War II veterans.

In addition to the veterans and their guardians, the flight included eight paramedics, 15 Freedom Honor Flight board members, a photographer, a reporter from a local television station in La Crosse and a variety of other volunteers.

That’s not all of the volunteers involved in a Freedom Honor Flight, though.

The veterans and their guardians were served coffee and donuts at the airport hangar in La Crosse as part of the send-off on their way to Washington D.C.

In Washington, there were about 150 people gathered to welcome the veterans.

And when they returned to LaCrosse that evening, there was the Onalaska High School marching band, about 500 to 600 people gathered at the airport to say “welcome home” — and fireworks.

“They played all of the songs for the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force. It was really something,” Gust said.

Gust served in the United States Army and was stationed in Germany. He is one of those veterans who is considered to be a veteran of both the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Gust was discharged from the Army as a Specialist Third Class.

Memorials

After the Freedom Honor Flight veterans arrived in Washington D.C., which is about a two-hour flight from La Crosse, they were taken by bus to the various memorials — which included the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the Air Force Memorial.

The veterans also received a bus tour of Washington D.C.

One of the stops included Arlington National Cemetery, where they were able to watch several ceremonies in memory of 9/11, as well as the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“The changing of the guard they do 24 hours a day. They have half-hour shifts. In the winter, they change every 15 minutes when it’s really cold. It’s very exciting to watch,” Gust said.

“When we were going through Washington, they showed us where Lincoln got shot (Ford’s Theater),” he noted.

The Air Force Memorial is three spires, and if you line up with the middle spire and look toward the Pentagon, you will see a United States flag. The flag marks where the airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, and line-of-sight from the spire to the Pentagon marks the flight path of the plane on September 11, 2001.

The Air Force Memorial “looks like three planes disappearing in the sky,” Bob noted.

When Gust and Bob were at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, they stood back, since they did not know anyone who had died in Vietnam, and let the other veterans get up close to the black granite wall that is etched with the names of veterans who died in the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is actually two black granite walls that are each nearly 250 feet in length.

“One guy was there with his finger on the wall. I talked to him afterwards. I said, ‘Do you know someone on there?’ And he said, ‘Yes, that was my son.’ That really struck me,” Gust said.

As it turned out, the father had served in Korea, and his son had been killed in Vietnam.

“It was heartbreaking to see — 77 Vietnam veterans, and they were going up to the wall to find their buddies’ names. They were 18 or 19 years old, and they lost an 18 or 19 year-old buddy,” Bob said.

Long Day

As you might imagine, leaving Colfax at 3:45 a.m. Saturday morning and returning to Colfax at 2 a.m Sunday morning would be a long day for anyone, even with weather during the day that was a perfect sunny 80 degrees with a slight breeze.

“I didn’t even get tired walking. There was a lot of walking. The good Lord took care of me. I never had to have help,” Gust said.

If he had needed help, there would have been plenty of help available. The Freedom Honor Flight took wheelchairs along, and if someone got tired and needed a hand, there was a volunteer to help with the wheelchair.

The long day may have also contributed to a bit of comedy at the end.

“When we came back, I didn’t know Tom, Pam and Jan were going to be there at the airport,” Gust said.

Tom and Pam Moen are Gust’s son-in-law and daughter, and Jan is Bob’s wife.

“We were lucky. We sat right at the front of the plane. I was the first one to come through. There was the VFW. The band was playing. It was a little dark in there,” Gust said.

“This guy reached out to shake my hand, congratulate me, and Bob’s wife said, ‘Congratulations!’ Bob grabbed me by the suspenders and turned me around. I didn’t even know it was them!” he said.

Bob had taken a video with his phone of the arrival home, and you could hear, along with the band playing, people in the crowd saying “thank you, thank you” and “welcome home.”

“They took care of us like we were kings. I can’t say enough good about the people who put this on,” Gust said.

“Anybody with a wheelchair, there was a lift on the bus … everybody was so accommodating. They couldn’t help you enough,” he said.

The guardians also were instructed to not let the veterans pay for anything on their trip to Washington D.C.

“They were not allowed to spend as much as a nickel. They gave enough already,” Bob said.

“I don’t know if Bob was tired or not, but everything went so smooth. Just unbelievable. There was never a boring moment,” Gust said.

“I felt very privileged to be able to go as his guardian,” Bob said.

“They had enough to eat. You couldn’t eat half of what they served you. The food was excellent,” Gust said.

In addition to coffee and donuts at the airport in the morning, breakfast was served on the airplane, and lunch was provided during the tour of the memorials. There was also unlimited water and snacks on the bus for the veterans.

“We had a beautiful flight. When we came back to La Crosse, the pilot said, ‘It’s going to be a rough landing because the runways are so short,’” Gust said.

“It was a smooth landing — but a very quick stop,” Bob noted.

Orientation

Before the veterans and their guardians go on the Freedom Honor Flight, they must attend an orientation.

Actually, the guardians attend the orientation, and the veterans are left to visit with each other for several hours.

“Dad said even if he couldn’t go on the flight, that was pretty special, to talk to other veterans, to talk about what they went through. Some had it better, and some had it worse,” Bob said.

“And you wouldn’t believe this,” Gust said, “the first guy I went up to, I said, ‘I’m Gust Fehr from Colfax, Wisconsin.’ And what do you think the guy said? — ‘Do you know Joe Doucette?”

Now — what are the chances that the first person you talk to in a crowd asks you, when you say you are from Colfax, if you know Colfax’s famed girls’ basketball coach Joe Doucette?

Gust learned that the veteran was from Elk Mound and that his daughter, years ago, had played AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball for Joe Doucette.

“I talked to probably 20 different ones. Some had their wives for guardians. Some had their daughters. I had my son, Bob,” Gust said.

Bob said he would encourage any veteran who might be at all interested in going on the Freedom Honor Flight to sign up. The waiting list is currently 600 veterans, and the Freedom Honor Flights fly out of LaCrosse two or three times per year, as funding allows.

“When they told me about it, I signed up for it. And I’m glad I did,” Gust said.

“In fact, I was out at the Valley Tavern one night, playing cards, when they called me,” he said.

The Freedom Honor Flight on September 11 was not Gust Fehr’s first trip to Washington D.C., but at the time he visited Washington in the 1980s, none of the memorials had been built. There was no Korean War Veterans Memorial, no Vietnam Veterans Memorial and no World War II Memorial.

“The good Lord took care of me — and Bob did, too,” Gust said.

“This is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. The people who put this on, they work hard, I’ll tell you,” he said.

Freedom Honor Flight is a La Crosse based organization that was founded in April of 2008, is supported only by donations and is run by volunteers.

If you would like to know more about Freedom Honor Flight, visit the organization’s website at  www.freedomhonorflight.org.

If you would like to make a contribution, donations may be mailed to Freedom Honor Flight, P.O. Box 505, La Crosse, WI  54602-0505.