Pearl Harbor survivor Dave Hughes, of Montgomery, wears his green on St. Patrick's Day as he visits with fellow WWII veteran Ernie Gaston, of Montgomery during the regular Wednesday morning gathering of WWII veterans at the Lone Star Honor Flight office at Storage 105, 13921 Highway 105 in Conroe. The Honor Flight is planning two trips to Washington D. C. for WWII veterans to visit the WWII Memorial. The Honor Flight has made three trips already for veterans to visit the memorial. Photo by David HopperDave Hughes felt like a kid again, playing his harmonica and singing old World War II songs.

But then the 86-year-old Montgomery resident felt like a scared soldier again, recalling the terror of being at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed Dec. 7, 1941.

And then, standing in front of the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C., he felt uplifted.

"It was very emotional," Hughes said. "I've never been prouder."

Hughes was on the inaugural Lone Star Honor Flight May 31, 2008.

The organization, founded by Montgomery resident Brenda Beaven, takes World War II veterans to Washington D.C. to see the World War II memorial, at no cost to them.

"We were singing old World War II songs," Hughes said. "I hollered 'the navy won the war!' Most of them on the flight were marines, air force or navy."

Hughes good-natured teasing was part of the whole Lone Star Honor Flight experience.

"You should see the look of pure joy on old men's faces," Hughes said.

Visiting the memorial can be sad too.

Ernie Gaston, an 82-year-old Montgomery resident, searched the memorial for the name of his friend Robert Dunham, who went down on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.

"I found his name," Gaston said. "That was sad, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

Beaven said Montgomery County is home to approximately 2,500 World War II veterans.

Lone Star Honor Flight has taken a few hundred to Washington, and will do so again May 1 and May 22.

Beaven is still raising funds for the May 22 flight.

It costs $85,000 to charter a 737 aircraft, which holds 155 people, she said.

They also rent buses, and pay for meals for the day. Guardians, or volunteers who come on the trip to help the senior citizens, pay $400 per ticket.
The rest of the cost is subsidized by Lone Star Honor Flight.

"We do need money," Beaven said, "But we're going one way or the other."

May 22 will be the last trip for Lone Star Honor Flight.

"The average age I'm taking now is 86," Beaven said. "I have to be realistic about the trip. It would take me another year to raise enough money to go on flight six, so then the average age is 87 and 88."

It's a long day for the veterans, who meet at the Target parking lot in Conroe at 4:30 a.m.

They are bused to the airport, escorted by a police caravan and the Patriot Guard.

The flight leaves at 7 a.m., arriving in D.C. at 11 a.m.

They visit the memorials and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, witness the changing of the guards at Arlington National Cemetery, have lunch and then fly home.

"We come back to the parking lot, and there are hundreds of people there to welcome them home," Beaven said. "The send off and welcome home are phenomenal."

Beaven launched Lone Star Honor Flight in 2008 after seeing a news story about a man out of North Carolina who was taking World War II vets to D.C. "I was sitting there watching, crying," Beaven said.

Beaven, a retired Montgomery Junior High School history teacher, contacted the man she saw on TV.

"He said 'it's about time we heard from Texas," Beaven said. "I thought, are you kidding me? As much flag waving as we do in our state, no one has contacted you besides some 7th grade history teacher? That was throwing down the gauntlet. I couldn't believe it."

Beaven spoke about it at a rotary club meeting in January 2008, which is when Jack McClanahan got on board.

Since then, he has opened his business, Storage 105 in Conroe, to veterans on Wednesday mornings so they have somewhere to gather and socialize.

"If you're just around these guys, you realize there's no choice," McClanahan said. "They stick together like glue."

McClanahan also went on a Lone Star flight as a guardian.

"What gets me is just listening to them talk," McClanahan said. "I heard two veterans who were Prisoners of War, and they had just found out they were in the same German POW camp. They didn't know each other there, and now here they are talking about it like it was just yesterday."

Montgomery resident Bethany Laub, her husband Joe, 14-year-old son Keaton and 16-year-old son Mitch have all signed up for a May flight.

"We will learn a lot just by listening to these special folks," said Bethany, whose father was part of the infamous Normandy Beach Invasion during WWII. "You can learn so much from people who have been down the road further and longer than you have."

Want to help?

What: Lone Star Honor Flight final trip
How: donate towards May 22 flight costs
Volunteer: sign up to be a guardian by visiting www.lonestarhonorflight.com

For more information: 936-499-3786 or 936-232-0681