World War II veterans visit memorial

J.W. Tomlinson was one of three Wellsville-area veterans — the others were Don Fleming and Tom O’Dea — who were flown to Washington last weekend to see the World War II Memorial.

Several area veterans, also including an Ottawa man, Ray Talbott, have made the one-day flights to see the memorial as the result of a special project by Lyndon High School.

“It’s my first time to the memorial and it will be my last,” Tomlinson said. “I wouldn’t have been able to go there otherwise.

“It was real nice for them to do that.”

Under the program called Honor Flight, Lyndon students have raised money to pay for flights for the World War II veterans and accompany them during the day-long tour.

The program, the brainchild of Brian Spencer, Lyndon’s school superintendent, allows veterans to see the memorial while giving students a chance to experience an important part of U.S. history.

Tomlinson and other veterans told the students about some of their experiences during the day.

Tomlinson was originally in the U.S. Army Air Force, refueling giant four-engine B-24 bombers at an air base in England.

However, as the U.S. Army ground forces prepared for D-Day and the invasion of France, the Army became more desperate for soldiers to fill infantry divisions battered by earlier fighting in Italy and North Africa. The Army started grabbing soldiers from air bases and U.S. installations to fill out depleted infantry units slated for the invasion of western Europe.

He was one of those soldiers grabbed.

Actually, Tomlinson volunteered to take the place of another airman who had been grabbed.

“He didn’t want to go,” Tomlinson said. “I liked him and I wanted to go.

“Our commander just switched our names.”

Tomlinson was assigned as an artillery crewman assigned to an infantry division headquarters.

Although he wasn’t in the front line, Tomlinson said he often had to dodge German snipers intent on bagging senior American officers.

He and his gun crew followed the division as it crossed France, Belgium and across the Rhine into Germany.

“I never saw my buddy again,” he said. “He got shipped home before my group did.”

When he came home, Tomlinson was a Kansas City firefighter and a machinist.

While he was in Washington, Tomlinson chatted with Bob Dole, former U.S. senator, World War II veteran and who was one of the driving forces in establishing the memorial.

The memorial includes columns of all the states and territories who had soldiers in the war.

Tomlinson and other veterans laid a wreath at the Kansas column.

He said he was pleased by the memorial.

“I think Dole did a good job of getting the memorial built,” Tomlinson said.

Lyndon students have been conducting a series of the flights this spring through the national Honor Flight organization.

The veterans and students leave Kansas City International Airport early in the morning and return that night.

Ray Talbott, a B-17 tail gunner from Ottawa, went to the memorial on a flight prior to the weekend.

“The trip was fantastic,” Talbott said of his trip.

The veterans and students enjoyed interacting, he said.

“I think they learned a lot,” Talbott said.

Talbott thanked the students and said the trip was long but worth it.

“The memorial was very impressive,” he said.