By Jeff Switzer
For The Enterprise
There’s Mary Justason, who helped supply ships in Pearl Harbor with canned goods as part of the Navy’s WAVES program and heard the fleet’s horns when the Japanese surrendered.
With her is Bob Hedahl, an Army infantryman who lugged his M-1 rifle as he fought fiercely in New Guinea and the Philippines.
And there’s John Bustard of Edmonds, a navigator who flew reconnaissance in Michigan patrolling for enemy balloons and boats entering the United States.
They and other local World War II veterans returned May 31 from a sentimental journey to Washington, D.C., thanks to a group of Bothell Boy Scouts who raised $14,000 for the once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Thirteen veterans of World War II, four spouses and the widow of a veteran caught a plane May 27 with three Boy Scouts and two troop leaders for a “red-eye special” flight back East. They were met by another troop that helped coordinate the event in the nation’s capital.
One of the main purposes of the trip was to encourage understanding and ties between the veterans and young people, according to Chris Duros, project coordinator for Troop 35. The troop also simply wanted to honor the veterans who fought in the “Big War,” Duros added.
A highlight of the trip was a visit to the new World War II memorial, noted Edmonds resident Lyle Nichols, 88, who served in the U.S. Army and saw action on Omaha Beach.
Nichols said he often was the one called upon by guides in Washington, D.C. to add a little “color commentary” as he was one of the oldest and longest-serving veterans in the group.
Raymond Olson, 80, also of Edmonds, pointed to an audience with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as another high point of the trip.
“Don gave us a little pep talk,” quipped Olson, who served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Rumsfeld also shook the veterans’ hands, giving them some “man-to-man contact,” he noted.
The local contingency had front-row seats at the Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, according to Olson, who called it “a real honor.”
“All in all we had a great time. What those scouts did for us…it was just great,” he recalled.
The project, called Wings of Honor, was hatched by Scott Senter, an assistant Troop 35 Scoutmaster from Snohomish.
Senter’s father, George Senter, was a decorated tank commander in North Africa in World War II, and a prisoner of war in Poland for more than a year. He died in 1982, two decades before the World War II memorial was built, Senter said.
Senter said he asked the boys in Troop 35 if they wanted to help send a handful of veterans to Washington, D.C., “to say thank you and let them see their memorial.”
“We had to pick a weekend and it ended up being Memorial Day,” Senter said.
Local posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion helped select veterans for the trip.
Donated furniture, trips, wine, gift certificates to health clubs and restaurants in the Mill Creek and Bothell areas raised most of the $14,000 at an auction in November.
The veterans are thrilled and humbled by the honor. Several said without the scouts’ generosity, they never would have made the trip to see the war memorial and other significant sites.
“The window of opportunity for World War II vets to go back and see this is rapidly closing,” said Duros. “Most of them are well into their 80s and can’t travel or simply won’t be with us much longer.”
Enterprise writer Sue Waldburger contributed to this report.
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