Video: Veterans Get Day of Honor in Aurora

The sun had barely crept over the horizon when their Day of Honor began.

Shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, the parking lot in Montgomery was buzzing with excitement. More than a dozen veterans of World War II and later wars had ventured out for a day they would not soon forget.

It began in that lot, with a parade leading to East Aurora High School, and it ended with a musical tribute and the rousing applause of hundreds of students and community members. On the day before the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, the theme of the event, expressed again and again, was a simple one: thank you.

Tuesday’s Day of Honor doubled as a celebration of Honor Flight Chicago, the organization that gives veterans free flights to Washington, D.C. to see the war memorials. It was organized by Honor Flight, Comcast, State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, and the staff of East Aurora High School, where the majority of the event took place.

When the veterans arrived at East Aurora High, they were treated to a flyover of vintage World War II planes. Cadets from East High’s Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps escorted the vets into the school, where they were honored by Chapa LaVia, Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, East Aurora Superintendent Jerome Roberts and others.

The veterans were escorted to the school’s auditorium, where they received round after round of applause. NJROTC Cadet Amber Elliott sang a rousing rendition of the National Anthem, and Aurora Idol winner Tony Martinez performed a tribute song to those who died at Pearl Harbor.

The centerpiece of the day, however, was the Emmy-award-winning 30-minute film Day of Honor, produced by Comcast for Honor Flight Chicago. It details one of those Honor Flights, from the early-morning takeoff to the joyous late-night welcome home at Midway Airport.

According to Mary Pettinato, CEO of Honor Flight Chicago, it costs roughly $500 to bring one veteran to Washington, D.C.

That’s the amount Lt. Cmdr. Darryl Person, head of the NJROTC program at East High, collected from students and presented to Montgomery’s Herschel Luckinbill, a tireless Honor Flight volunteer, on Tuesday.

“We are very grateful and thankful to have these tremendous veterans in our midst today,” Person said.

Clarence Bark, a World War II veteran from Montgomery, was one of those who took an Honor Flight. He said the experience of seeing the memorial was a moving one, and noted that many World War II veterans did not live to experience it—the National World War II Memorial opened to the public in 2004.

Bark remembers where he was on Dec. 7, 1941—on a Naval base in Jacksonville, Florida, getting ready to go on leave. That leave, he said, was canceled without warning, and sailors were recalled to duty without knowing why. They didn’t find out until two days later that America had been attacked.

He served on a ship in the Pacific, all the way through to the end of the war—he was in Tokyo for the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945.

Bark said Tuesday’s Day of Honor was “fantastic,” and expressed his gratitude. That gratitude was returned hundreds of times over, from students and community members alike.

“This is a special day all around, and it’s special because you’re here to celebrate it with us,” said Pettinato.