A crowd of about 350 friends, relatives, and supporters holding signs and waving miniature American flags waited in anticipation as the plane taxied to the gate at LAX. A banner bearing the words, “Welcome Home, Heroes!” claimed center stage.
The crowd was waiting for 20 military veterans—men and women whose sacrifices in wartime were the stuff of legend. They included 96-year-old U.S. Army combat veteran Solomon Schwartz and 19 other nonagenarian veterans who had just returned from their first and probably only visit to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The June trip was the first arranged and paid for by Rancho Santa Margarita-based Honor Flight Southland. The nonprofit organization was founded by Craig Van Doren, a recently retired executive with Costa Mesa-based information technology service provider House of Lync; Luci Miller of Orange County Global Medical Center (formerly Western Medical Center Santa Ana); and Doreen Harrison of All Nations Realty and Investments in Rancho Cucamonga.
Honor Flight Southland, established last year as a 501(c)(3), is one of the newest hubs in the Honor Flight Network. The parent group, founded in 2005 by retired Air Force captain and physician assistant Earl Morse, provides WWII veterans a free trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the National World War II Memorial and other landmarks.
The local organization took its second Washington trip last month and plans to add a third annual flight soon in a project that has been a hit with veterans and volunteers alike.
Latter-Day ‘Parade’
The celebration was the homecoming “parade” that Schwartz—a Mission Viejo resident who’s a survivor of the Bataan Death March in the early days of the war—never received. He spent 42 months as a prisoner of war before the Japanese Imperial Army surrendered on Aug. 14, 1945.
It took some time for Schwartz to recover from the deprivations of the POW camp and make the ocean voyage home. The ticker tape from the homecoming parades had been swept up by then. Soldiers had exchanged their uniforms for hard hats, suits and ties, and dungarees as they re-entered civilian life.
Schwartz moved on, too, ultimately moving to Los Angeles to open a jewelry store.
“For Sol, like so many of these men and women, they returned home from war, unpacked their bags, got jobs, started families—they didn’t talk about the war … they just filed it away,” says Van Doren, who passed along recollections from Schwartz with the veteran’s permission. “One of our goals with Honor Flight Southland is to provide a form of closure for these veterans while letting them know how important they were—and still are—to all of us.”
130 Branches
There are approximately 130 Honor Flight branches across the country. Each is a stand-alone organization, says Van Doren, who lives in the Dove Canyon section of Rancho Santa Margarita and whose parents both were Navy veterans.
Honor Flight Southland covers L.A. and Orange and San Bernardino counties.
“We’ll take veterans from other areas, of course. We have boundaries, but they’re not really hard boundaries,” Van Doren says. “The important thing is getting these veterans out to Washington to see the memorial while there’s still time.”
Each veteran is paired with a volunteer “guardian” whose job is to make the veteran’s trip as flawless, comfortable, and enjoyable as possible, according to Miller. Guardians, who are typically members of the veteran’s family, such as a grandchild, pay their own costs for the trip. The veteran’s costs are completely covered—about $2,000 for airfare, transportation, food, and overnight accommodations for three days.
The visits to the World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument are certainly highlights of the trip, Van Doren says.
So are the opportunities for veterans to connect with others with similar wartime experiences.
“Many have never spoken about all they went through,” he says. “Guys get together, and the stories just start coming out. Their guardian may be their son or their daughter, and they’ll turn to us with a shocked look on their face, and say, ‘I’ve never heard any of this.’ It makes the hair on your arms stand out.”
OC Support
Honor Flight Southland has an annual operating budget of $220,000, says Van Doren.
“We have extremely low overhead. Everyone who works with Honor Flight Southland is a volunteer. Also, we don’t take government grants. We rely on donations and are grateful for every dollar we get.”
The local chapter managed to fund two flights this year, thanks largely to the financial and in-kind support of small and large businesses.
Bank of the West, Orange County Global Medical Center, Sizzler USA Restaurants Inc., and All Nations Realty and Investments are among the businesses that have made donations valued in the tens of thousands of dollars.
A printer in Irvine and a Miami-based operator of palliative and hospice care facilities with several OC locations are among the businesses that have made significant in-kind gifts.
“The Printery has donated at least $10,000 in printing,” Miller says, “and Vitas Healthcare has taken care of all of our wheelchair needs—every veteran uses one during the trip—which is equivalent to a donation of many thousands of dollars we would otherwise have had to pay to rent them.”
Southwest Airlines underwrote the commercial flights for all 20 veterans for the first Honor Flight Southland venture.
Southwest flight attendants announced the veterans’ presence over the loudspeaker system.
“The passengers immediately erupted into applause,” Miller recalls.
Key Backer
The second Honor Fight Southland outing took place Oct. 25. This time the organization was able to charter a flight for the 65 veterans who took part, thanks to the largest donation the organization has received to date: a $75,000 contribution from Breitling USA, the U.S. arm of Breitling SA, a Switzerland-based watchmaker that focuses on the luxury market. That donation was rounded up to $100,000 with the $25,000 contribution of Westime, one of Breitling’s distributors based in Los Angeles.
Breitling USA has supported the Honor Flight Network since Chuck Anderson, the brand’s national sales manager, saw “Honor Flight,” a documentary produced for the group by Freethink Media, which has offices in New York and Washington, D.C.
“My grandfather was a World War II veteran,” he says. “For the first time, I felt like I understood a little bit of what he’d gone through.”
Breitling USA has donated more than $750,000 to hubs in the Honor Flight Network since 2012, gifts that have been distributed with little fanfare.
“We’re not looking for recognition,” he says. “We’re looking to help veterans.”
Much of the donations come from the sale of specially designed, limited edition watches. The first collection featured 56 watches, each one different, representing the 50 states of the union and the six U.S. territories. The second honored the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the largest sea-borne invasion in history and a turning point in the war’s European theater of operations. Each collection has netted approximately $100,000 for Honor Flight. The company has announced a third collection prominently bearing the Honor Flight logo.
“I’ve been involved with many organizations over the years,” Anderson says, “but I’ve never been involved with something as great as this. This generation of veterans literally saved the world.”
Anderson has also volunteered as a guardian on an Honor Flight.
“When you have the opportunity to shake the hands of people who dropped everything to be part of the effort to make the world right again … the way they open up to you … well, it’s one of the most unbelievable experiences I’ve ever had.”
The Honor Flight Network plans to transition at some point to also taking Korean War and Vietnam War veterans on similar trips.
“But right now, it’s vital to share the experience with as many World War II veterans as possible, like Sol Schwartz,” Honor Flight Southland’s Miller says.
“These veterans are in their 90s. Many of them have challenging health issues that make it difficult for them to travel,” Van Doren says. “The truth is, due to their age and health, we are running out of time to take them. Our mission is to get these vets to the World War II Memorial before it’s too late.”
