I wanted to go with Mom to see her friend Mick come home from his Lincoln Honor Flight on June 14th but he wasn’t going to get back to Springfield til pretty late at night so I decided not to go.
I’ve known Mick ever since I can rememeber – he and his family and my family went to the Unitarian Church when I was a kid and I have vague memories of visiting them at their different farms all through my childhood.
Here’s a picture that Mom took of Mick’s wife Martha and son Mike. Mom took this at 9:44 p.m. so it was mighty late and a good call not to go. I was still getting over my whole hospital/unexplained health stuff at this point plus leery of being in the crowded airport, covid-fear-wise.
Mom doesn’t take many pictures and she didn’t realize you need to take at least a couple to make sure everybody’s eyes are open, but maybe she’ll do more of that and get better at it. They certainly look patriotic, don’t they?
Never mind what I said about mom, she managed to take a selfie with Martha so that’s very impressive for an 86 year-old. Unless Martha took it?
The Lincoln Land Honor Flight is a non-profit organization that takes our countries’ most honorable Veterans to D.C. on a one-day trip where they tour some of the memorials and have lunch. Hopefully they also got dinner? Gee, many of the veterans were in wheel chairs. Each one had a “guardian” who was there to make sure their veteran was well taken care of during the trip.
MIck is there in the back in a bright yellow shirt. I guess yellow was for Air Force. He was a Major in the Korean War, flying the North American F-86 Sabre, a trans sonic jet fighter aircraft. That sounds big, huh?
Mick served in Korea, Japan and Taiwan, plus stateside in Texas and Illinois where he was also a Flight Commander. I don’t know why it keeps making me tear up to see this photo of him, shaking hands with somebody who was honoring his service. Now I wish I’d gone to see him. Plus I wish I’d known that he was a pilot in the Air Force.
Here’s Mick with his guardian, his friend named Vi, who was in the US Army Reserve in Phoenix in 1979. She drove Tactical Refrigeration Trucks. When she moved back to Illinois she was in a combat ready unit in Peoria, where she drove tactical petroleum tankers, hauling JP-4 jet fuel. She wrote in an article for the Unitarian church bulletin that Mick wold have used a lot of this fuel in his aircraft.
Here are a couple of photos that were included in the article. Mick was a very handsome young man.
I wonder who was thanking him for his service? Some president I imagine.
We need to have Mick and Martha over for dinner and I can ask him about his time in the Air Force. He’s 89 now I’m pretty sure, so I need to get right on that.
Meanwhile…October, yes. Today is already in the 60’s, it’ll get up to the 70’s and it’ not going to be this warm again for who knows how long, so I need to go for a run and then hopefully a boat ride. Outside, I say!
Ok then,
Mrs. October Hughes.