Honor Flight vets 'well cared for'

May 30--BLOOMINGTON -- Roy Klingzing of Bloomington is hoping his Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., next month will be less eventful than trip he took during the Korean War, flying home from Germany to see his terminally ill mother.

The military cargo plane in which he was flying lost power in two engines over the Atlantic Ocean and had to make an emergency landing in Bermuda.

Klingzing, a U.S. Army veteran who was a reporter for Stars & Stripes, is among four veterans or War Department workers from the Bloomington-Normal area who will be on a Greater Peoria Honor Flight on June 7.

"The veterans are well cared for," said Honor Flight volunteer Michelle Sherman. A medical team travels with them, along with a guardian for each honoree and a fleet of wheelchairs borrowed from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, she said.

The wheelchairs are useful for what is a long day. The chartered flight generally leaves no later than 6 a.m. and doesn't return to Peoria until about 9:30 p.m. A typical trip includes stops at the memorials for World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, as well as Arlington National Cemetery for the Changing of the Guard.

Sherman, who accompanied an Honor Flight in May, said it was a fantastic experience with "a lot of tears and a lot of smiles."

When the Honor Flight veterans were at Arlington National Cemetery, a group of eighth-graders from Texas also was there.

"The kids and their teachers lined both sides of the sidewalk and shook hands with the veterans," said Sherman.

There is no charge for the veterans or War Department workers, selected on a case-by-case basis, such as former "Rosie the Riveter" Gladys Barnes of Bloomington, who is also participating in the June trip. The guardians who travel with them must raise $500. John Kraus Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 454 is covering the cost for Barnes' daughter, Sue Johnson, to accompany her.

World War II veterans and terminally ill veterans from other wars get priority.

For more information on how to apply for an Honor Flight, go to www.greaterpeoriahonorflight.org.

Follow Lenore Sobota on Twitter: @pg_sobota

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