27 flights, 15 years
Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight has proud record
Ron Newsum is the founder and president of the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight committee.
By BILL SHEA bshea@messengernews.net
Photos by Britt Kudla
Nearly 4,000 veterans got a free trip to Washington, D.C., to see the nation’s war memorials courtesy of the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight.
The first flight left Fort Dodge Regional Airport in 2010.
The most recent one took place on May 7. That was the last flight operated by the original Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight Committee. A new committee is expected to start coordinating flights next year.
The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight program is the vision of one manRon Newsum, of Fort Dodge.
He had heard about the national Honor Flight program with chapters across the country taking World War II veterans to Washington. And he wanted to get his stepfather, the late Clem Hentges, to the nation’s capital. Hentges was a Navy veteran who had served on PT (patrol torpedo) boats in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Newsum got to work and brought some other area residents together to form a committee that would conduct the Honor Flights.
Ron Newsum, left speaks with fellow Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight committee members Orene Cressler, center, and Peggy Dettman.
Ron Newsum, center, the founder and president of the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight committee, poses for a photo with fellow committee members and Honor Flight volunteers during a recent dinner marking 27 flights conducted over the past 15 years.
Besides the dinner and going over the itinerary, veterans were also treated to a video presentation as well as a performance of “God Bless the USA” by Manson Northwest Webster fifth-graders Emily Schroeder and Heather Jud, both 11.
The Honor Flight will depart from the Fort Dodge Regional Airport around 6:20 a.m. on May 6 and return about 10:30 p.m. that same day.
Kris Dobesh, of Algona, works on some training techniques with Nicole, who is being trained as a service dog for a veteran. Dobesh and Nicole will both be accompanying veterans on the Honor Flight.
Messenger file photo: Friday, May 5, 2017
One of the first things the group had to do was pick a name. Newsum recalled that in 2009, there was an Honor Flight operation in Des Moines called Central Iowa and one in Mason City called Northern Iowa. With two obvious possible names already taken, the committee picked Brushy Creek after the stream that feeds into the huge lake at Brushy Creek State Recreation Area.
Hentges was on that first Honor Flight voyage. Newsum wiped tears from his eyes as he watched his stepfather being escorted out of the plane and onto the tarmac at Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington.
The early flights were reserved for World War II veterans. In later years, they opened up to Korean War veterans, Vietnam War veterans and those who served in peacetime between the wars. Each flight followed a similar pattern. They would depart from Fort Dodge Regional Airport early in the morning and fly to Dulles International Airport.
“It’s been a great ride,” Newsum said, while standing in the Fort Dodge Regional Airport terminal on the morning of May 7. “I’d do it all over again.” e said. we’ll the eteran er, of he’s go on ht for lly be -
It's been a great ride, I'd do it all over again. " "
Ron Newsum
In Virginia, the veterans, Brushy Creek Honor Flight committee members, other volunteers and a medical team would board buses. Those buses would take them on a tour of the monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, the Navy Memorial, the Air Force Memorial, and the Marine Corps War Memorial. The group also went to Arlington National Cemetery to witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Then the group returned to Fort Dodge that night to a rousing welcome home event at the airport.
The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight had no paid employees. And it was never bankrolled by a big company. A steady flow of donations and fundraisers meant that no veteran has ever had to pay for their Honor Flight trip.
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Another Honor Flight prepares for takeoff World War II vets will travel to Washington
By BILL SHEA
Messenger staff writer
Morethan 100 World War II veterans from the Fort Dodge region are preparing for a special trip to Washington, D C
They will board a jet headed for the nation’s capital on Sept. 25 for the second Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight.
The former soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will spend that day visiting the national World War II Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the Iwo Jima Memorial and other monuments around Washington They’ll return to Fort Dodge Regional Airport that night to what flight organizers hope will be a rousing welcome home rally
‘‘The whole thing has just been a labor of love,’’ said Ron Newsum, the chairman of the committee which is organizing the flight
Newsum and fellow committee members Tom Dorsey, Mike Kopp, Russ Naden, Dan Payne, Mel Schroeder and Charlie Walker have already led a successful May 1 Honor Flight.
‘‘It was an honor,’’ Newsum said of that trip ‘‘It really, truly was I only hope that every Honor Flight goes as well.’’
The upcoming flight will leave at about 7 a m from Fort Dodge Regional Airport Veterans will be accompanied by escorts called guardians and a handful of doctors and nurses will be aboard Newsum said members of the public are welcome to cheer the veterans as they head to the plane. But he added that he’d rather see a large crowd to greet the veterans when their plane returns to Fort Dodge between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m.
‘‘It’s more important, I think, to welcome the veterans home that evening,’’ he said
Newsum said many World War II veterans, especially those who returned to the United States in 1946, didn’t get big welcome home receptions
About 500 veterans have signed up for the local Honor Flight program, creating the possibility that more flights will be held next year
Honor Flight is a national program. Newsum decided to try to have a local Honor Flight so that his father, Navy veteran Clem Hentges, of Fort Dodge, could make the trip without having to go to a distant airport and stay in a hotel
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 5732141 or bshea@messengernews net
The Iwo JIma memorIal In arlIngTon, Va , is cast in shadow by the setting sun The memorial is scheduled to the last stop for the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight before the veterans and their guardians head for home during the Sept 25 trip
-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
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photos from September 2010 Honor Flight publication in The Messenger
World War II spanned two oceans and that fact is represented in the design of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. This pavilion commorating action in the Atlantic Ocean is on the memorial's north side. An identical pavilion dedicated to action in the Pacific Ocean is on the south side.
The words o n t Iwo Jima Mem
ed in th action p on in th side.
II spanned two oceans and that fact is
World War II spanned two oceans and that fact is represented in the desi morial in Washington, D.C. This pavilion commemorating action in the memorial’s north side. An identical pavilion dedicated to action in the Pac side.
This fountain sits at the center of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
This foundain sits at the center of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
This wall of stars at the west end of the national World War II Memorial represents the roughly 400,000 Americans who died in that conflict.
Th Iwo Jima Mem
This fountain sits at the center of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
World War
represented in the design of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D C This pavilion commemorating action in the Atlantic Ocean is on the memorial’s north side An identical pavilion dedicated to action in the Pacific Ocean is on the south side.
The words of Navy Adm Chester Nimitz are inscribed on the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Va
This wall of stars at the west end of the national World War II Memorial represents the roughly 400,000 Americans who died in that conflict
-Messenger photos by B ll Shea
This fountain sits at the center of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D C
Brushy Creek Honor Flights
Currently recognized “wartime” periods are:
World War II……….December 7, 1941 – December 31, 1946
Korean War…………June 27, 1950 – January 31, 1955
Vietnam War*………August 5, 1964 – May 7, 1975
*If a Veteran was in Vietnam between 02-28-1961 and 08-04-1964, the veteran is still considered wartime service.
4 Wednesday, August 25, 2021
‘A TRIP OF A LIFETIME’
W
hen Ron Newsum organized the first Fort Dodge area Honor Flight, he never could have imagined what it would become, he said.
``You can question any board member – none of us thought we would affect this many lives,'' Newsum, of Fort Dodge, said. ``This affects the lives of veterans and the lives of their families. In my mind, this is the right project at the right time.'' Newsum, an Iowa Air National Guard veteran, organized the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight in 2009. He did it to get his late father, Clem Hentges, a World War II Navy veteran, to see the nation's war memorials.
The first Honor Flight left Fort Dodge Regional Airport on May 1, 2010.
Since that time, more than 2,000 veterans have gone to Washington, D.C., on 19 different flights.
The first five flights were exclusively for World War II veterans.
The next six flights included World War II and Korean War veterans.
Since 2015, the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight has accepted veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
On Aug. 28, 132 veterans will board the 20th Brushy Creek Area honor Flight..
The flight aboard a Sun Country Airlines 737 will depart from Fort Dodge Regional Airport early in the morning. It will land at Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of washington, D.C. There, the group will board buses for the capital.
The veterans will visit the World war Ii Memorial, the Korean War Veterans memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the United States navy memorial, the U.S. Marine Corps War memorial and the Air Force Memorial.
They will also witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Arlington national cemetery. The group will return to Fort Dodge late that night.
``For these veterans, it's a trip of a lifetime,'' Newsum said. ``They have never been recognized before for their efforts. I feel real proud that we are now.''
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