95-year-old gets D.C. trip in honor of military service

Memorial Day is May 27, and it honors those who served in the military. One of them is Summerlin resident Hank Gargano, 95, who recently took a special trip to Washington, D.C., courtesy of Honor Flight Nevada.

FEARED IN FRANCE, SHOT AT IN GERMANY

Gargano recalled his service in the First Allied Airborne Army during World War II. One evening, before a mission, he was in France with a free night to go off base with a buddy. They wandered into town in civilian clothes. An English-speaking teacher invited them to her family’s house, where she began baking rolls and brewing coffee. It would be their first home-cooked meal in many months.

Gargano was bouncing the teacher’s little boy on his knee, anticipating the meal, when the boy slipped off. Gargano’s head cover slipped from his pocket with the boy and landed on the floor. Seeing the paratrooper badge on it, the family drew back in horror.

The mother clutched her little boy. The father bolted for another room and returned with a .38-caliber pistol trained on the two Americans.

“This thing looked like a cannon,” Gargano said.

In the chaos, they learned that the Germans’ propaganda machine had been at work, telling French citizens that Americans would kill them. The paratroopers, they’d been warned, were particularly evil. In order to be an American paratrooper, one had to first murder a blood relative.

No matter how the two men protested that it wasn’t true, the family would have none of it. Gargano and his buddy were booted out of the house.

“I never got to eat the rolls,” he said.

Another day in Europe stands out as a clear memory to Gargano. It was March 24, 1945. He and 10 other soldiers were huddled in a glider, waiting to land in a German farmer’s field and then head for the battlegrounds nearby. The enemy spotted their plane, and soon bullets were whizzing past them.

“They were shooting at us through the (belly of the plane),” Gargano said. “All we’d heard were the pops, and you’d see where they’d hit the canopy. Do you duck? Does it matter?”

They had a jarring landing in a field plowed in a herringbone pattern. When Gargano tried to walk, his left leg gave way, and he collapsed on the ground. He stared at the blood gushing out of his leg. A shot had ripped through his left knee while he was coming in for the landing. He never felt it, he said, as he was so pumped up on adrenaline.

A tourniquet was fashioned from a strap, and he was rushed to a medic station. He spent the next seven months in the hospital. His leg was saved, but he still bears the scars.

HONOR FLIGHT TO D.C.

Nearly 70 years later, on May 3, Gargano and 34 other World War II veterans were flown to the nation’s capital for a free weekend trip to honor their service to their country. The free trip was arranged through Honor Flight Nevada. It was Southern Nevada’s first Honor Flight. The purpose of the trip was to visit the various monuments, especially those that pay tribute to their service.

Seventeen guardians, who paid their own way, went along to assist those in wheelchairs. Gargano was the oldest of the 35 Nevadans. The youngest was 84. Six of the veterans were female.

“We only had one Marine with us, and he had long hair,” Gargano said. “He didn’t look like a Marine anymore.”

The flight got to the East Coast late in the day, but there was enough time to go to Arlington National Cemetery and see the changing of the guard, pay homage to the Tomb of the Unknowns (aka the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) and see the eternal flame at John F. Kennedy’s gravesite.

They were put up at a Hilton property and had dinner there. For Saturday’s tour, he was surprised to see their bus flanked by police escorts.

“We went through red lights, and they had the sirens going and lights flashing and all that,” he said. “Can you imagine? I felt so appreciated. It was unnecessary, but they did it and ... we enjoyed it very much.”

It took them first to the World War II Memorial, where they stayed for about an hour. The memorial includes 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 dead soldiers. Of 16 million men and women in military service during the time, that number represents one death out of every 40.

“It kind of weakens you when you think of that and see these gold stars on the wall,” Gargano said. “That kind of shakes you up. You have tears in your eyes.”

Gargano said they went on to visit at least 15 other sites, including the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. He said one site, the Washington D.C. Paratroopers Memorial, was especially meaningful for him.

The veterans returned May 5.

A WAY TO SAY THANKS

Honor Flights was conceived by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and retired Air Force captain. Its first sojourn was in May 2005 when six private planes flew out of Springfield, Ohio, taking 12 World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the monuments. By August of that year, the ever-expanding waiting list of veterans led to using commercial airlines and a renewed goal: accommodating as many veterans as possible. The effort has expanded ever since, involving more and more states.

When a veteran takes an Honor Flight trip to the nation’s capital, it costs him nothing.

Belinda Morse, flight lead, said everything is donated. For the May trip, for example, Southwest Airlines donated more than two dozen round-trip tickets, the Nevada Military Support Alliance donated $15,000, Vietnam Veterans of America gave $2,000 and the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation donated $3,000.

“And we get checks from people,” Morse said. “I got a letter just yesterday from a guy who said, ‘My dad was a World War II vet, and I’d just like to donate in his honor.’ There was a check, $1,000. So, people are donating because it touches them.”

Jon Yuspa brought Honor Flights to Nevada and started the effort in Reno in October.

“For the first five years, I worked at the airport at Baltimore, where a lot of these flights came in,” said Yuspa, chairman of the board for Honor Flights. “You’d greet them, help them. I don’t have any grandparents living, so, instantly, you connect with them. When I came out here, all I wanted to do was volunteer, but there wasn’t one out here ... so it was a year just building this.”

Yuspa said the program has become a community affair with schoolchildren writing letters to the veterans and some veterans responding by sending them American flags or visiting their school. Honor Flights are popular.

“We have over 300 names on our current waiting list, and every day it grows,” Yuspa said. “Unfortunately, every week it shrinks, about two or three pass way.”

The first trip for Nevadans had to be canceled. Gargano had been all set to go on it. But Superstorm Sandy swept into the East Coast, and flights were canceled.

“It was so sad,” said Mary LeMond, his significant other. “He’d told all his friends about it.”

This time, it was clear sailing.

The next Honor Flight Nevada is slated for September. To get on the waiting list, fill out the application at honorflightnv.org.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.