Tuesday, April 23, 2013
During World War II and the threat of German occupation, Whitefish Bay resident Jayne Jordan was sent to the United States at the age of 9. Now, at the age of 82, she's seeing her story told.
Whitefish Bay resident Jayne Jordan, now 82, remembers reassuring her mother when Jayne was nine-years-old that everything would be OK as she left England for the United States in 1940, according to a story in the Journal Sentinel. Her mother, Maureen Jaffe, feared that the Germans would occupy England and she sent Jayne to the United States alone. The article tells how Jordan was sent to live with a host family in Fox Point and how she waited five years to be reunited with her mother. The story is about war-torn England, the painful decision hundreds of families had to make to spare their children and how they survived. Now, Jon Helminiak, a family friend, has chronicled the survival story titled "This Token of Freedom," which is now …
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Miller Park is the site for a day of honor and remembrance for veterans from the greatest generation and then some, breaking a world record in the process.
The showing of a documentary based on the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight brought tears to the eye, cheers from the crowd and broke a record for attendance. "Field of Honor," a documentary based on the journey of veterans to visit their war memorials in Washington, D.C., had its premier showing at Miller Park to a nearly sold-out crowd estimated at 33,000. Official totals confirmed by a representative of the Guiness Book of World records put the exact attendance at 28,442. The Honor Flight Network began in 2004 when Earl Morse, a retired air force captain and physician's assistant at a VA clinic in Ohio realized most of his patients who were World War II vets had neither the funds nor the physical ability to make the trip to see their own …
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Event at Miller Park brought together thousands of veterans and their families where they shared their stories of war, bravery and true love.
A sobering statistic flashed across the screen at Miller Park during the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight Field of Honor film debuted Saturday night. “One-thousand World War II veterans die every day.” As the veterans pass, so goes the chance to honor them, to hear their stories and to learn from the Greatest Generation. But honor flights throughout the state allow for those veterans to be honored and appreciated and to share their stories with the rest of the world. Martin Videkovich, of Caledonia, fittingly was sworn into the U.S. Navy on July 4, 1942, before he was shipped out to the Pacific. He recently had the chance to see the World War II Memorial when he went on the June Honor Flight. For Videkovich, the highlight of the trip “was …
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Hundreds of World War II Era veterans are treated to a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit their memorial. It's a journey that has been repeated several times before, but never gets old.
Most veterans are modest about their service, but often what details they won't tell you, their families will. Waiting for their heroes to come back from the latest Honor Flight at General Mitchell International Airport on a day that began 15 hours before, families wearing shirts with much younger faces in uniform are eager to share who they are waiting for. Richard Lyon of Glendale had a whole posse of family members, identifiable by gray shirts bearing his picture from the United States Navy. He served on the USS Requin, a naval submarine, in the Pacific theatre, although his enlistment would come just as surrender was declared. He had first attempted to enlist as a 16-year-old, lying about his age. However, his mother found out before …
Friday, May 13, 2011
Andrew Paretti Jr., World War II veteran and Fox Point resident, shares his experiences.
Andrew Paretti Jr. is an 86-year-old World War II veteran, and he doesn’t think he’s a hero. Nor did he want to go on an Honor Flight when his friend, John Young, a retired Navy captain he met in the Navy League, first suggested it. “Those are for the heroes,” he said. Still, Young persisted for three years, and finally accompanied Paretti as a guardian on a Stars and Stripes Honor Flight two weeks ago to see the National World War II memorial. Saturday, hundreds of other World War II veterans will take an expenses paid Stars and Stripes Honor Flight to Washington D.C. to visit their memorials, accompanied by volunteer guardians. “The highlight of the trip was when we got home," Parett said. "When we passed security, they had close to 3,…
Tom Knox
11:30 am on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Stars and Stripes Honor Flight website - movie FIELD OF HONOR event 8.11.2012 http://starsandstripeshonorflight.org/events.php (includes the movie trailer) link to approximately 630 pictures of the event at Miller Park - http://starsandstripeshonorflight.org/photos.php http://gallery.vipis.com/Honor-Flight/Field-of-Honor NOTE: VIP Photo website has photo galleries for the Honor Flights since May … more ›