Well, Hush my mouth

Never to old to learn, but I should have know that Deo Vindice was the motto of the Confederacy. Thus it was on the soldier's grave in Purcell I posted 2 days ago. . "God will vindicate."
It was on the Great Seal of the Confderacy. Here's the story:

   The Great Seal of the Confederate States of America was engraved in 1864, by Joseph S. Wyon, of London, England, predecessor of J. S. and A. B. Wyon, chief engravers of Her British Majesty's seals, etc., and reached Richmond not long before the evacuation of the city, April 3, 1865. It was of silver, and in diameter measured nearly four inches. At the evacuation it was overlooked by the Confederate authorities, and  fell into the possession of Colonel John T. Pickett, of Washington, D.C., who, after having a number of electrotype copies in copper, silver and gold plating made from it, presented the original to Colonel William E. Earle, of Washington, D.C., who on December 27, 1888, formally presented it to the State of South Carolina.

Okies on parade, a salute!

The day before the Honor Flight...reception and ceremony with more than 500 people present.

That's friend Ben Blackstock on the right.

And the next day,  more photos

Former Governor George Nigh talking with a member of the Air National Guard going up the steps to the aircraft. Security station is below. Each vet was escorted or helped onto the plane.

Oklahoma newspaperman Ed Livermore Sr.

And another Okie..Lookit that hat!

The Welcome Home crowd

The tail end of the tale

Living American and Oklahoma History

The Honor Flight gathered in front of the Memorial building for a group shot.

Each of the pillars carries a state's name. 

That's the POW-MIA flag flying under Old Glory.

They gathered for photos under the Oklahoma pillar.

First stop at Arlington was at the U.S. Marine Memorial

They are always Marines.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

And the Changing of the Guard

Watched by our veterans.

And, across the green grass of Arlington, the graves of the well known

and not so well known. And the sound of Taps.

Veterans' stories--an adventure to and from Washington

"Harry Truman was the best friend I've every had," a WWII veteran told me earlier this month.

He was sitting in the Reed Convention Center in Midwest City not too far from a captured Japanese flag, getting ready to go on the first Oklahoma Honor Flight.  "He dropped that bomb, and I got to come home."

Oh the stories I've heard on one of the best adventures I could have. Thanks to Mark Thomas and Oklahoma Press Association, I went along for the ride, taking photos and writing a story for Oklahoma's newspapers, May 17.

There were glitches--like the rain that forced everyone to wear ponchos and kept me from identifying all the veterans for their hometown newspapers, and my notepad was still wet three days later.

More of that and photos in the next post. Above is the photo of a Tulsa veteran, Mr. McCormick, the oldest member of the flight at 94. He volunteers three times a week at the Tulsa VA center. The hats tell such stories.

Here's the story OPA sent to member newspapers this past week.

By Terry M. Clark

Ninety-nine WWII vets from across Oklahoma left on a chartered jet by the dawn’s early light for a one-day whirlwind tour of war memorials in Washington D.C.

They were guests of the inaugural Oklahoma Honor Flight organized by volunteers in Midwest City to honor them.

They toured the WWII Memorial, the Marine statue of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The stories that should be told are endless. There were survivors of the Battle of the Bulge and Pearl Harbor, former POWs, Purple Hearts and men who witnessed the flag raising on Iwo Jima. Oldest vet along was a 94-year-old Tulsan.

Then they flew home, arriving at the Air National Guard hangars at Will Rogers World Airport at 10:30 p.m.

Starting last fall, the group raised $95,000 to cover all expenses and it’s making plans for more flights, including one in October. Chairman Steve Coleman of Midwest City said there were another 230 WWII vets on waiting lists. 

There were about 200 people on the jet, as each veteran who needed help had an assigned guardian. In addition, Oklahoma Press Association was represented, and Channels 2 and 8 of Tulsa and OETA.

Each of the vets wore a light blue T-shirt with the Honor Flight logos. Guardians had red T-shirts. All had blue caps with American flags.

The celebrations began the Sunday before the trip with a reception and ceremony at the Reed Convention Center in Midwest City, attended by more than 500 people, including the vets.

The vets marched into the reception hall to the drum cadence of a military drum and the standing ovation of the crowd. The Governors Honor Guard presented the colors. Master of Ceremonies was Rep. Gary Banz of Midwest City, a former government teacher who helped organize the events.

Each vet was presented a copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Then in came the school children of the Mid-Del district with commemorative coins for the vets, exchanging them for the copies of the American documents. The school kids had raised $25,000 of the total project cost.

 Keynote speaker was Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, former commandant at Tinker AFB. The vets spent the night at the adjacent hotel and were up by 3:30 a.m., for the mile-long escorted bus convoy to the airport. Before leaving the hotel each bus passed under the arch formed by the Del City fire truck ladders, a salute from the firemen.  Highway Patrol motorcycles and police cars, lights flashing in the darkness, took the buses to the airport where the vets were met by uniformed members of the Air National Guard.

They went through a makeshift security scan set up by TSA and then the service men and women helped each vet up the stairs on the tarmac to the waiting jet.

The jet began moving as the sun came up, as the uniformed military stood at attention and saluted. Base fire trucks sprayed the plane with water.

Two and a half hours later the jet landed in Baltimore and a group crew of volunteers was there to welcome them with cheers and smiles and help them onto buses for the ride to Washington.

It was drizzling but it didn’t dampen the crowd getting off the buses. Provided rain slickers, and several of them in wheel chairs, they toured the WWII Memorial, congregating at the Oklahoma pillar and taking in the newest of Washington’s monument. The American flag, with the black POW-MIA flag flew nearby.

Honor flights began in Ohio about five years ago and the idea has spread. Oklahoma is the 31^st state to have the program. So far, about 40,000 vets have made the trip. The priority is to get any WWII vet who is able to get on a jet to go see the memorials. Only about three million WWII vets are still alive. Those vets are in their 80s and 90s, and time is taking the toll that the Japanese and Germans didn’t in WWII. Eventually, the priority will shift to Korean vets and then Vietnam.

Before they landed back in Oklahoma, each veteran answered “Mail Call,” with a packet of about a dozen letters. One was from the vet’s representative. The rest were from the school children, handwritten notes thanking them for their service. At the airport, the Air Force was waiting again to help them off the plane, and flag waving family members were also there.

The Oklahoma program began when a Midwest City veteran, Al Willoughby, USAF-Ret., went to Texas to take part in an Honor Flight. When he came home and  told the Midwest City Rotary about it, his fellow Rotarians started work, wanting a program for Oklahoma veterans.

For more information—www.oklahomahonorflights.org

Writing for food--reporter's journey

Two of five reporter's notebooks I filled in a month...Yes, my handwriting is getting worse.

This has been my slowest month of blogging since I started. But I have been writing, for food, at the daily business newspaper in downtown Oklahoma City, Journal Record.

I added it up and had 30 stories of differing lengths in 19 days, plus one editorial column.
I learned about oil company production and financial quarterly reports, and a lot more. The staff does two stories a day, minimum, and I got close, but missed two days be cause of the OPA sponsored honor flight I took May 17 to DC.

Most fun were longer articles interviewing John Belt about his Paseo projects; Bob Blackburn about historic buildings, features on Fort Reno and the Guthrie Masonic temple., interviews with a green cleaner and a Paseo artist, the tornado storm story, and attending meetings on Devon's building sale and a hearing on building demolitions--plus two brief posts on the web on deadline.

Lessons--I got faster the more I did; I can still make deadline; the morning commute through interesting neighborhoods (I avoided Broadway Extension), I still enjoy the atmosphere and humor of the newsroom, and I'm thankful for copy editors who save me. It's fun to hold a reporter's notebook in your hand, take notes and interview people. And, there's nothing like a byline on page 1.

Here's the list of other things I wrote: Energy company quarterly financial and operational report stories: Devon, SandRidge, Panhandle, Evolution, Enterra, Gulfport. Others: Medical building sale, FSB architecture story, Freede tower, Texadelphia, Arpin movers, OCCC speaker, Lake gasoline leak, KCSC, Unhealthy City, Habitat for Humanity move, Oklahoma home foreclosures.

And on Friday, it's great to head home with a sense of accomplishment.

Thanks to all the folks at the JR.

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