WWII vet Bob Larson part of Honor Flight

Bob Larson of Grays River answered an ad expressing interest in being part of the Honor Flight Network, which flies World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. in honor and appreciation for their service.

He was sure there was a catch, and when he received a call from one of the program's representatives, he waited and waited to hear it. There wasn't one, unless you counted buying your own souvenirs.

"You don't ever see anything without a cost to it," a surprised Larson remarked.

Before he knew it, he was bound for the east coast on a non-stop Alaskan Airline flight with 29 other veterans from western Washington state. The group left Seattle early on the morning of October 18 and Larson had instructions from his family to get up and walk every hour on the plane.

"I had a window seat," Larson said. "The view was great, especially as the plane began it's turn into Baltimore. There was so much to see."

The downside? He couldn't get out to take his hourly walk up and down the aisle. He wiggled his toes instead.

Larson shared a room at the Hilton in Linthicum, Maryland with another veteran, and they quickly became friends. He put Deep River on the map for all his fellow travelers.

There was a lot on the schedule for the next two days and reveille would come at 6 a.m. each day. The veterans were fed and then got on the bus to go to the Mall in the District of Columbia.

Their first stop was the World War II Memorial. Honor flights from all over the country gathered there for a group picture, ceremony and a search for Kilroy.

"They did really well keeping us on schedule considering there were 500 of us from all over the country," Larson said.

A friend from his youth, Eva Malerich, who had been raised in Deep River was there to greet him. She brought her camera and documented some of the tour for him.

"She lives in Washington D.C.," Larson said. "It was good to see someone I knew."

After the WWII Memorial, they visited the Lincoln, Korean and Vietnam Memorials. Somewhere in the schedule, the Honor Flight Network made time for lunch and then they were off to the FDR Memorial, the Navy Memorial and finished with a tour of the Navy museum.

A big banquet followed the day's events, and then it was time for a bit of rest before the next full day of touring the town.

They spent the first part of the second day taking a slow drive through Arlington Cemetery and getting out to witness the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

"The White House grounds are 600 acres," Larson said, "and the cemetery is about 400 acres. You just can't imagine how many graves are there."

It is obvious that he had been affected by what he saw that day.

"You know the Changing of the Guard," Larson said. "That's maybe what gave some of those guys on the tour a nervous breakdown. The soldiers would go through their motions at one end and stand there with their rifle and pretty soon walk down to the other end and go through the ritual again. Their uniforms were spotless, their shoes were shiny. It was really something."

He got quiet for a moment.

There were more memorials that day. They visited the Women's Memorial, the Marine Corps Memorial and the Air Force Memorial and like a whirlwind it was time to fly home.

"When people take trips today, they should consider going back to see Washington, D.C., Larson said. "There is a lot of history there. What I really learned is that more people should take that trip. It really is educational."

In June of 1945, Larson, an 18 year old junior in high school got called up. His older brother, Norman, went in in 1942 and was expected to be home in October of 1945. The Larson family owned a dairy farm and there was a lot of work to do, and that didn't change the summer of 1945. Larson's niece stepped in to help the family until Norman returned.

"I was glad I went in," Larson said. "The experience was good. When I got out I finished high school and got paid my GI money. I got $75 a month for going to high school. It gave you plenty of good spending money."

Larson had taken typing in high school and was sent to the Aleutian Islands as a clerk typist at post headquarters on the island of Shemya.

"We kept track of all the records of everyone on the island," Larson said. "There was a lot of paperwork."

According to Larson, Shemya is two miles wide and four miles long. The second longest runway in the world sat along one side of the island, which was high on one end and down at water level on the other side in the Bering Sea.

"The Bering Sea is the roughest water in the world," Larson said. "In the Columbia, you see waves. In the Bering Sea, it's just water pumping up."

He had to cross from Attu Island to Shemya one time in a PT boat. It wasn't much fun.

"I have never been seasick, which I am thankful for," he said. "But when we went to Shemya, I stood out in front. All the other guys were in the inside and they were getting sicker than a dog. I was soaking wet and cold, but I never got sick."

The atomic bomb was dropped on Japan when Larson was in basic training and the war was over when he was was headed to Shemya, but he will never forget what his commanding officer told his company en route to their rugged outpost.

"We could be thankful the war was ended, he told us. We had been scheduled to invade the mainland of Japan on Christmas day.

"That would have been a bloody mess. The atomic bomb killed a lot of people but it saved a lot of American lives," he said, soberly.