LIMA — Flag City Honor Flight, based out of Findlay, will be taking 11 area veterans and their guardians to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to tour the memorials built in their honor memorializing their service to the country.
Mike Melvin, of Lima, plays a large role in getting these veterans recognized and on the Honor Flight.
“I had heard of it, but didn’t really understand what it was. Then my neighbor, Dick Esmonde, who was a World War II and Korean veteran for 29 years, he tried to tell me that he tried six times to get on the Honor Flight and hadn’t been accepted. I thought that kind of sounded far-fetched because he’s a World War II vet, and he is not going to be denied. He either was talking to the wrong person or he’s been lied to or something. I took it upon myself to do a little investigating and I got him accepted,” Melvin said. “That was two years ago, and I’ve gone every year since.”
Esmonde asked Melvin to be his guardian. A guardian is someone who accompanies the veteran during the entire day of festivities. The veterans pay no money toward their flight or their day in D.C., but the guardians are asked to donate $400.
Melvin took this trip with Esmonde, and has been taking a trip annually since.
The following year he was a guardian to Dick Dardio, a Korean War veteran from Lima.
“He passed away on New Year’s Eve. He was still talking about the trip the last hours that he was alive, his daughter told me,” Melvin said.
The importance of getting the veterans to the memorials is evident in all that Melvin does volunteering for the Flag City Honor Flight.
“My goal is for all of them to get to go, to get as many of them over there as I can possibly get,” Melvin said. “Also, our goal basically is if it’s not for us, there’s a good chance these folks will never see the memorials that was built. So that’s why we do this. The airfare and all of that is free. A lot of them are at the age and shape that they can’t run over there by themselves. A lot of people that we take, if we don’t take them, they’re never going to get over there.”
Melvin plans the trip putting together a hotel, transportation and arranging for the veterans to meet before their flight. This is all volunteer work that Melvin does.
“I planned this one as far as putting the Lima group together. I arranged the transportation and the motel rooms. I had a picnic three weeks ago for all of these guys to come together and meet each other. That way when they get on the bus, they’re not shy because they don’t know the guy beside them. Hopefully they met at the picnic. Let the stories begin, so to speak,” Melvin said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s volunteer what I do, as if I don’t get paid, because I do when I see their face walking into the World War II Memorial. Once they walk into the World War II Memorial, which is the first place we walk in to, the light on their face pays me for everything I’ve done throughout the year. Financially, no I don’t receive anything.”
The veterans will leave at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday from the Western Sizzlin parking lot. They will be bused to a hotel on the grounds of the Toledo airport. The flight to D.C. takes place the next morning at about 7:30 a.m. The veterans will return to the Toledo airport at about 9:30 p.m., where they will be greeted with a welcome home celebration with family, friends and a host of people honoring the veterans.
“One of my main rewards is they get the welcome home celebration that they didn’t get the first time. That drives me,” Melvin said.
The veterans will again spend the night at the airport hotel, and then will arrive home at about 11 a.m. Thursday to Wal-Mart on Allentown Road.
For information on how to get a veteran to Washington, D.C., visit Flag City Honor Flight at http://flagcityhonorflight.org or call Mike Melvin at 419-303-9280.
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