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Florissant Man Tells His Experience as Part of Honor Flight For WW II Vets
HONOR FLIGHT MEMBERS with RICH SCHAMBERG’S goup had a group photo taken at the Marine Corp Memorial Iwo Jima statue. Rich was the only one from Florissant as most of these veterans were from Franklin County. It was a long, but eventful and emotional day for all the WW II veterans.
BY CAROL ARNETT
Florissant resident Rich Schaumberger went for the ride of his life this fall. He was part of an Honor Flight out of Franklin County. The Honor Flights are chartered flights that take World War II veterans to Washington D.C., where they visit the World War II Memorial, the Korean and Vietnam memorials, Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial. After their full day, they fly back home.
Schaumberger went with a group from Franklin County. They left Lambert at 5 a.m. and returned after 9 p.m.
Schaumberger served in the Army from December of 1942 until November of 1945. He was in Europe until Germany’s surrender. He was then set to go to the Pacific theater when the war ended. His unit was one of the first to return to the United States because they were already loaded to go to Japan.
“When we got word it was over, everyone was shooting their guns and shouting,” he said. He and hundreds of other men slept on the ship’s deck on the trip to the United States because the ship was too crowded to sleep anywhere else.
After the war, Schaumberger lived in Berkeley before settling with his wife in Florissant in 1953. He worked as a plant engineer before getting into sales, eventually starting his own sales company. He and his wife raised five children, and currently have 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Schaumberger’s Honor Flight had approximately 100 veterans and 50 guardians. Guardians are volunteers who accompany the veterans. Each veteran is assigned a guardian to help them throughout the day. Depending on the needs of the veterans, a guardian may have more than one veteran. Some guardians are the veteran’s relatives, while others don’t have a connection to a particular veteran. The guardians must pay their own way, while everything is provided for the veterans by the honor flight organization.
After boarding the plane at O’dark 30, as vets use to call it, the group enjoyed breakfast on the plane. When they arrived in Washington D.C., fire trucks were there to give the plane a water cannon salute as it taxied down the runway. After reaching the gate, the guardians got off first, and then the veterans. “When we got off, there were at least 200 people lining the gangway applauding,” Schaumberger said.
The group then boarded three buses, and had a police escort to the World War II memorial. Former Senator Bob Dole met them and an honor flight from the Cleveland area that was visiting on the same day. Dole tries to meet every flight.
After visiting the memorial and other memorials on the National Mall, including the Korean and Vietnam memorials, the group had lunch under a tent on the mall. They then re-boarded the buses for a driving tour of Washington.
They stopped at Arlington National Cemetery, where representatives from their flight laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Later they visited and had a group photo take at the Iwo Jima Memorial.
After dinner at a local restaurant, they returned to the airport and boarded the plane to St. Louis. “We’re sitting on the plane, and we here someone yell ‘mail call,’ and then they pass out letters,” Schaumberger said. The letters were from friends and family thanking the veterans for their service. “There wasn’t a dry eye on the plane,” Schaumberger said.
Despite the long day, Schaumberger said it was one of the best days of his life. “Any World War II vet that doesn’t do it will be doing himself a disservice,” he said. He added that any veteran, even with health problems, could go. “It doesn’t matter what shape their in,” he said. “We had people with oxygen, with wheelchairs,” he said.
“This was the most well-oiled organization I’ve ever seen,” he added. “And I’ve been in many organizations.”
Veterans interested in the Honor Flight program can visit the web site:www.honorflight.org or call Jim Tayon at 314-302-3858 about flights out of St. Louis.
