Catherine Harvey may have retired as an Air Force nurse many years ago, but she’s still passionate about helping other veterans. Now 71, the Naperville grandmother and mother of four volunteers for Honor Flight Chicago, which recognizes the bravery of America’s senior war veterans with an all-expenses-paid day trip to Washington, D.C.
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The Chicago chapter of the nonprofit is one of 45 in different states. The Honor Flight Network was co-founded in 2005 by Earl Morse, a physician and retired Air Force captain, and Jeff Miller, a small business owner and son of a World War II veteran. The Chicago chapter was set up three years later.
“It’s always wonderful. It’s amazing to see these people,” said Harvey, tearing up. “When they come back to Midway, there are always hundreds of people waiting by the baggage area to welcome them home. It’s a long day, but it’s really exciting.”
Harvey’s volunteer role is to seek out veterans to join one of the nine flights out of Midway Airport each year. Perhaps surprisingly, not all are keen to go.
“One man was really reluctant, but together with his family, I encouraged him to go,” she said. “He thought he wasn’t worthy because he came back from battle alive. Finally, last summer, he went. He said it was the best thing he had ever done. It’s quite common for some veterans to think they’re not worthy, especially if they have served stateside, but they are.”
Initially, the program was offered to veterans of World War II and the Korean War, but this year, those who served in the Vietnam War also were welcomed. That’s especially emotional for Harvey, whose three brothers served in Vietnam and, like many, were treated badly on their return.
“That’s why taking an Honor Flight is so healing,” she said. “When the Vietnam vets returned, they were spat on and called child killers. All my brothers went through that, so for me, it’s really significant.”
Each flight has about 98 vets, plus guardians and medical staff to keep them safe. It’s a grueling day beginning at 2.30 a.m. as the veterans are dropped off at Midway. Any World War II veterans, of course, are now in their 90s.
Wheelchairs are provided for those who need them and as well as being helped through security, vets are given special dog tags and shirts. After coffee and doughnuts, they are helped onto a chartered flight which leaves for Washington, D.C., about 7.30 a.m.
“When the flight lands, it is met with a lot of pomp and circumstance,” Harvey said. “They are greeted with fire engines spraying water. Then, four luxury coaches will take them to the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. It’s very healing.”
Harvey said many old soldiers don’t talk about their experiences to family members. But when they meet up unexpectedly with old war buddies on one of these flights, it can be an amazing opportunity to talk.
“War is just too painful for some veterans to talk to their families about, but they’ll talk to each other or me, especially when they find out I was a military nurse,” Harvey said.
The return flight leaves around 7 p.m.
“There’s mail call on the way back on the plane,” Harvey said. “Letters thanking them for their service are written by many volunteers, some of them children. Everybody gets one.”
Sometimes, Honor Flight Chicago does something extra special.
“One time they did a trip to Arlington Cemetery so a 98-year-old woman was able to see her husband’s grave for the first time since his funeral 15 years earlier,” she said.
Harvey joined the Air Force right out of school in Colorado.
“My father was in World War II, my grandfather a cook in the Navy,” she said. “The military was just something that was always part of my life. In high school, I joined the Civil Air Patrol and we traveled to mountains checking on any planes that may have crashed.”
It was a process of elimination that led her to the Air Force.
“I didn’t want to get married and I wanted to travel, but didn’t have any money, so I thought, ‘let’s go into service,'” she said. “I always liked the cold weather, so the Navy would have been too hot. Also, they were not accepting women back then in the early 1970s. I joined the Air Force in Great Falls, Montana, because I liked the mountains, the cold and the wildlife.”
After training in Texas, Harvey served as a second lieutenant nurse for two years.
“It was short and sweet and I enjoyed it, but then I met my husband Jim,” she said. “I would have stayed on in the reserve but they wanted me to be a secretary because they didn’t need any nurses, so I left.”
Today, Harvey keeps herself busy looking for Honor Flight recruits.
“In Chicago, we have had 94 flights since 2008,” she said. “We’ve flown over 18,627 vets; 6,302 from World War II, 2,006 from Korea and 319 so far from Vietnam.”
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A flight costs more than $120,000, so donations are always needed. For more information about donating or volunteering, visit www.honorflightchicago.org or contact Catherine Harvey at [email protected].
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved from England to Naperville in 2007.