Richard “Mick” Bray was simply eight years previous when he heard that Japanese forces had launched a shock aerial assault on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor.
A cousin of Bray’s father, Fred Bray, had pushed out to the household farm close to Chatham to inform them in regards to the assault which might draw the U.S. into World War II.
Related:Land of Lincoln Honor Flight will soar again after being grounded by COVID restrictions
Mick Bray admitted he did not know the place Pearl Harbor was on the time however he understood sufficient to know the circumstances have been dangerous.
Bray recalled one thing else from that day: his cousin leaving the farm with a promise.
“He told us (he was going to sign up with) the Marines (the next day),” Bray mentioned. “That influenced me. He did go into the Marines and (served) in the Pacific Theatre.”
Bray served as a pilot within the U.S. Air Force in Korea and later within the Illinois Air National Guard.
The 88-year-old retired farmer from Virden is one of 92 women and men who shall be half of the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
It would be the first flight for the Springfield space group that permits veterans to go to memorials devoted to their service arms within the nation’s capital in additional than two-and-a-half years as a result of of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The journeys are free for veterans and guardians and Tuesday’s flight is one of 5 deliberate for this 12 months, mentioned Land of Lincoln Honor Flight president Joan Bortolon.
The National Honor Flight Organization suspended all flights nationwide from March 2020 by means of Aug. 31, 2021, in response to COVID-19 well being issues, restrictions and public availability of the memorials in Washington. In all, the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight had to scuttle 16 journeys since March 2020.
“I am extremely excited that we are returning to our mission, and we are beginning to serve our veterans,” mentioned Bortolon, noting the final flight was accomplished in October 2019. “We are happy they were patient enough to stick with us during these 30 months.
“As I’ve mentioned earlier than, we wished (to do these flights) properly and we wished to do them safely. That’s why we determined to wait till we knew issues have been settled down with the pandemic.”
According to Bortolon, one World War II veteran will be on Tuesday’s Honor Flight along with 26 Korean era veterans and 65 Vietnam era veterans.
Two women veterans–Rita Rey of Springfield, who served in the Women’s Army Corps, and Bonita Blakey of Waverly, who served in the Air Force and the Illinois Army National Guard–will be part of the flight, Bortolon said.
“We are at all times thrilled to have our feminine veterans on flights,” Bortolon said. “It does not occur fairly often, however we’re at all times extraordinarily excited when we’ve got that illustration. We’d love to have them on each flight.”
Others from Springfield who are part of Tuesday’s flight include: Daniel “J.D.” Smith, who served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army during the Vietnam era; Ed Jones, who served in the U.S. Marines during the Vietnam era; John “Clark” Esarey, who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean era; Glen Chapman, who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era; Steve Boyce, who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era and Hal Bast, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam era.
Other Honor Flights from Springfield will take place July 19, Aug. 30, Sept. 27 and Nov. 1.
Applications are available at the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight website, by email at [email protected] or by calling (217)-585-1219 or (217) 652-4719.
‘A good bunch of guys’
Mick Bray got the itch to fly as a five-year-old after coaxing his father to take him on a ride on a Ford trimotor.
After graduating from Virden High School, Bray hadn’t planned on going to college, until an uncle convinced him to attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
You may like:Scheels Sports Complex could see a flurry of activity soon. Here’s what we know
There he joined the Air Force ROTC before graduating with a degree in agriculture science in 1955.
Bray was in pilot training for a year before going to Korea in 1958, when some 46,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed. Bray was part of the 311th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Osan Air Base.
While Bray arrived after the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953, the area was still fraught with tension as the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that formed a buffer between North and South Korea attested.
“We did not belief one another,” Bray said recently at his Virden home. “We nonetheless do not.”
The F-86 Sabre fighter jets that Bray flew had “sizzling weapons,” meaning the weapons were ready to fire live rounds.
Bray, who also served in Japan and Taiwan, returned to the U.S. in 1959 and eventually joined the Illinois Air National Guard as part of the 170th Tactical Squadron in Springfield in 1963.
“They wanted pilots and one of the grasp sergeants within the space talked to me and it seemed like a great match,” Bray recalled. “I assumed I may farm and fly on the weekends.”
Sure, Bray admitted, there was a little bravado among the pilots, and maybe some “Top Gun” antics.
“I assume trying again there was some buzzing that did not want to be,” he said. “Sometimes, I used to be flying wing and I’ll have to blame the flight commander. My responsibility was to fly his wing, so I left it up to his judgment.”
Overall, Bray said he had a fondness for his commanders and his fellow pilots.
“I hate to admit it, however most have been higher than me,” he said. “An excellent bunch of guys. I’m glad I used to be within the Air Force and within the Air Guard. I’m sorry we’ve got to have wars. Unfortunately, human beings appear not to be perfected but.”
Bray was nudged to take the Honor Flight by a family friend, Vi Lanum of Springfield, although Bray had looked into earlier.
“I picked up the ball ran with it,” Lanum said. “And I acquired a house run. It’s an unbelievable honor to be his guardian for the day.”
Lanum’s late father, Robert Lanum, was a Korean War veteran in the U.S. Army Reserve. Vi Lanum was part of a U.S. Army Reserve Company when she lived in Arizona and later a Combat Ready Unit out of Peoria, Ill., where she hauled jet fuel.
Bray said while he appreciates the Honor Flight organizers and will be thinking of fellow veterans Tuesday, he will also be thinking about family who supported him through his service.
“It was tough (for my then-wife) to help me as a pilot as a result of we had a pair of youngsters immediately. It anxious her,” said Bray, who has since remarried and has three sons. “Sometimes we honor the veterans and neglect in regards to the help we have all had. This (Honor Flight) cautions me not to neglect these helps are wanted.”
Paying tribute
Rita Rey admitted she was at crossroads in life after losing a well-paying sales job with the Olivetti company in St. Louis in the late 1960s.
Both of her brothers had served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam War and her father, Chester Heidbrink, was part of the Army after the liberation of France in 1944, so Rey decided to join the Women’s Army Corps in 1969.
“There was a bond,” Rey said of the experience. “It was a sisterhood. Men handled us like they’d anybody else within the Army.”
As a teletypist of highly secured coded messages, Rey had a top secret clearance at Fort Ritchie in Cascade, Maryland.
“(The fort was) inside of a mountain,” recalled Rey. “It was totally contained.”
It also was home to a military intelligence training center where “Ritchie Boys” learned Morse code, analyzed aerial photography and were trained in psychological warfare, according to an online history of the fort, which closed in 1998.
Rey went on to become an information specialist, writing news releases and editing a newspaper while stationed at the Institute of Pathology, a tri-service between the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy in Silver Spring, Md.
Rey’s then-roommate was a medic stationed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center so Rey would go with her to visit patients. That experience and working as a bartender at an NCO club gave her a glimpse into the casualties of the war.
“It wasn’t like I used to be within the midst of it, however I noticed the aftermath of it,” she said. “It was heartbreaking.”
Rey’s brother, who lives in Granite City, Ill., is on full disability after being exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. Rey said a cousin died from complications from Agent Orange several years ago.
“It was actually a waste of so many younger males’s lives,” said Rey, who also recalled her brother being spat on by protesters while he was at an airport in California.
Rey was in the Army at a time when women were not allowed to go into combat have any weapons training.
“Everything for girls was restricted then,” Rey said. “I’m proud now that is a lady’s selection. What bothered me essentially the most rising up was not having selections. If a lady desires to battle for her nation, she has that proper.”
Rey raised three daughters and later became a realtor and then a real estate appraiser. She lived in San Antonio for 16 years before moving back to Springfield several years ago. Rey has self-published several books.
Several years ago while visiting the USS LST 325, a U.S. Naval tank landing ship in Chester, Ill., Rey struck up a conversation with an Army recruiter who had asked if she had ever been on an Honor Flight.
Rey, 77, who will be accompanied by guardian Amy Christison, said the group Tuesday is scheduled to drive by the Military Women’s Memorial at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
She sees the Honor Flight as a way to pay tribute.
“I’ll be pondering of my brother and my cousin and rather a lot of the ladies (I served with),” Rey said. “We misplaced contact over time. But we had rather a lot of enjoyable collectively.”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, [email protected], twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
