Keepsake Quilt for Her Daughter the Airman

OCEAN SPRINGS -- Check out a story in Tuesday's (Sept. 27, 2011) sunherald.com about Airman 1st Class Alexa Pelton, who graduated from Ocean Springs High, and her mother, Kim Locke.


Locke made a keepsake quilt out of old T-shirts for her Air Force daughter, who will deploy overseas in October. Pelton, 20, is stationed now at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado. The shirts depict various memories from Pelton's high school years.

Vets Receive Grand Welcome Home Again

Veterans return from Washington,D.C., on Wednesday after second Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight.
Some 2,000 people awaited their return, offering cheers, hugs, handshakes, and music at the airport in Gulfport.

Honor Guard escorts 86 veterans from World War II into Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport after their return Wednesday night from viewing their memorial and other war sites in the nation's capital.




Members of the Navy, Marines and Army, airport officials and public formed a corridor of state flags for the returning veterans.

Family members wait for their loved ones.

Banners, signs, t-shirts, arm bands, mini-flags, posters, huge portrait, and other items were on display for the veterans.

Mitchell Cirlot, a guardian for the Honor Flight on May 11 this year, was at Gulfport's airport to greet the veterans aboard the second Honor Flight on Sept. 21.

Joy Mangum (right) waited to greet the veterans as well as her husband, Supervisor Mike Mangum, who was one of the Honor Flight guardians this year. She came to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport early to get a good place to wait for the returning WWII veterans.

Members of the Joppa Shrine talk while waiting for the return of the Honor Flight, which was delayed about an hour because of weather in Virginia.

GULFPORT -- The airport's lobby had filled with people and activities long before 87 veterans making the second Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight returned from the nation's capital Wednesday. Military personnel and residents started to arrive in earnest about 4 p.m.

Eric Hausken, and construction mechanic, sets up a flag.

Roanna, a volunteer with Honor Flight, took a water break before returning to her duties while waiting for the veterans to arrive. "I helped them get their orientation stuff ready."

Roanna had returned to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport to pick up the two guardians she'd dropped off during the early morning. "I will be over there cutting cake or selling t-shirts, I'm not sure which," she said. "I told them ya'll gone be bringing me next time if I get to be a guardian.

"They are so excited, all of them," she said of the veterans, "like when I meet them at orientation. It's just amazing."

The veterans had been expected to arrive between 7:30 and 8 p.m., but were nearly an hour late when their flight was delayed on its return to the airport.

Watch Honor Flight video on YouTube:

Still, their families and friends, government and airport officials, high school students, Boy Scouts, and military personnel from the Air Force, Navy and Army waited patiently along a human corridor of honor to greet the returning veterans after a day spent visiting the World War II Memorial and other military sites.

Roanna Sabree and her stepmom, Dorothy Pigott, waited for her father, Vernon Pigott of Picayune. "He's 90, so I've very excited," Sabree said before the veterans arrived. "Mostly, I'm glad he lived long enough to be able to do this. It's wonderful thing."

Mitchell Cirlot said he couldn't miss being in Gulfport for the return of the former military personnel, including three women this time. He had served as a guardian during the first Honor Flight on May 11.
"They were like me. They said they had to come back."
He had wanted to serve again as a guardian, but apparently there were more than enough people who also wanted to serve as companions. "He said the had so many people applying with the money in hand they had to turn them away. It's unreal."
When the honorees paraded across the airport floor, Cirlot first saluted then shook hands with many of the returning veterans.

The daylong trip included a personal visit to the WWII site built for the veterans who served during the war that officially lasted from 1939 to 1945. There the veterans also ate lunch and met Rep. Steven Palazzo and Sen. Roger Wicker.

Following the WWII site, the veterans and their guardians continued on a bus tour of Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam, Iwo Jima Memorial, and Korean sites, and ended the tour at Arlington National Cemetery to watch the changing of the guard. he veterans also had a bus tour of the monuments for the Iwo Jima.

Sabree and Cook greeted the veterans heartily to military music provided by the band at Keesler Air Force Base.
"Thank you for coming," said one veteran as he shook hands with the greeters. "We had a good time... and we didn't even drink," he said laughing.

1108th Theater Aviation Sustainment Unit Deploys to Kuwait

GULFPORT -- By now, members of the Mississippi Army National Guard's 1108th Theater Aviation Sustainment Unit should be in Kuwait.

The unit deployed Sunday, Sept. 18, from the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center on Hewes Avenue.

About 600 people attended the farewell ceremony, which included an Honor Guard and rounds of applause for the 140 guard members as well as their families, according to the Sun Herald. Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo, a former marine, spoke to the military personnel.

The National Guard unit is one of four of its kind in the U.S., and will provide high-level aviation maintenance. They will have detachments in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa, the newspaper reports.


Every time we say goodbye:
Families bid farewell to guard unit headed for Kuwait
The Sun Herald/Monday, September 19, 2011

Photos of Farewell Ceremony

1 More Day Until Honor Flight 2

Clara Webb, Barbara Chachitz and Katherine Gill (Photos/stories found at Mississippi Press)

PASCAGOULA -- Of the 87 veterans expected to make the second trip for Mississipi Gulf Coast Honor Flight, three are women.

Clara Webb, Barbara Chachitz and Katherine Gill are among the former military personnel who will make the trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the World War II Memorial, other war sites and civilian monuments.

The Sept. 21 journey, the second since the initial Honor Flight on May 11, includes the veterans, their guardians, Honor Flight staff, medical team and local media, who will depart from and return to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport off U.S. 49.

ITINERARY:

4:30 a.m. -- Assemble at Joppa Shrine Center in Woolmarket.

5:30 a.m. -- Buses leave for Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport.

6:30 a.m. -- U.S. Air charter departs Gulfport.

8:38 a.m. -- Land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C.

9:30 a.m. -- Buses depart for WWI Memorial

10 a.m. -- Bagpipe procession and wreath-laying at WWIII Memorial

10:30 a.m. to noon -- Box lunches at WWII Memorial; continue visit of WWII Memorial

Noon -- Depart WWII Memorial on driving tour of other sites.

12:15 p.m. -- Arrive at Lincoln, Korean and Vietnam War memorials.

1:45 -- Depart Lincoln Memorial.

2 p.m. -- Arrive at Iwo Jima Memorial.

2:25 p.m. -- Depart Iwo Jima Memorial.

2:45 p.m. -- Arrive at Arlington National Cemetery.

3 p.m. -- Observe Changing of the Guard.

3:15 p.m. -- Observe wreath-laying.

4 p.m. -- Depart for Reagan airport

5:30 p.m. -- Depart from Washington, D.C.

7:50 p.m. -- Arrive at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport.

Press Lets Public Get to Know Honor Flight Veterans

World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

PASCAGOULA -- Over the past several weeks, the Mississippi Press has been releasing the names and photographs of veterans expected to make a trip to the U.S. capital during the second Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight set for Wednesday, Sept. 21.
The Press calls the segment "Meet the Heroes."
If you missed the 87 men and women veterans in the newspaper, you may follow the above link to see who will be traveling to the World War II Memorial on Sept. 21 in Washington, D.C.

Some of the veterans making the trip:
William Kimble of Pass Christian, Gerald Klecker of Pascagoula, J.G. Lewis of Wesson, Darwin Maples of Lucedale; Angelo Papale of Gulfport; Eugene Spearman of Saltillo, Homer Wales of Gautier, Clara Webb of Biloxi, Barbara Chachitz of Biloxi, Stanley Fiveash of Poplarlville;
Edward Huse of Slidell; Edwin Mauterer of Diamondhead; Harry Quinn of Madison; Herbert Tepper of Hattiesburg, Claiborne Traweek of Quitman; Dorris Ward, General Bullock of Moss Point; Robert Horne Sr. of Lucedale; David Dotson of Winona, Max Juchheu of Grenada, Robert Clunie of Hattiesburg;
Richard Anglin of Tupelo, Katherine Gill of Biloxi, Jeff Haynie of Gulfport, Glen Norwood of Oxford, James Oakes of Hattiesburg, John Rhymes of Monticello, Harold Roberts of Collins, James Roberts of Greenwood, Lloyd Thurman of Silver Creek and Leonard Warren Hazelhurst.

Herman Abbey of Byram, Walter Barnham of Hattiesburg, Edward Bishop of Meridian, Jack Creech of Hattiesburg, Otey Jackson Jr. of Macon, Victor Lee of Hattiesburg, Noah Mills of Carthage, M.L. McCormick of Gautier, Robert Reeves of Diamonhead, Joseph Sasser of Carthage, John Stonecypher of Lucedale.

Information and applications are available at MS Gulf Coast Honor Flight, P.O. Box 1912, Gautier, MS 39553, by e-mail at mgchonorflight@gmail.com, and at http://www.mgchonorflight.org/.
Donations mailed to Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight, c/o Kiwanis Division 14 Foundation, 516 Brandi Lane, Gulfport, MS 39507. Contributions also may be made at any Hancock Bank.

The daylong trip will include visits to the World War II Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Iwo Jima Monument, and to the Arlington National Cemetery to view the changing of the guard.

Obama Presents Medal of Honor to Sgt. Dakota Meyer

Medal of Honor (left to right) for Army, Navy/Marine Corps/Coast Guard, Air Force

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Thursday, President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to former Marine Dakota Meyer of Greensburg, Ky., according to national media.

Meyer received the honor for saving the lives some 36 Marines, U.S. soldiers and Afghanistan military personnel during an ambush by insurgents in northern Afghanistan. He was 21 years old on Sept. 9, 2009.

Meyer, 23, is the first living Marine to get the honor in nearly four decades, according to reports by McClatchy Newspapers in the Sun Herald. The Medal of Honor is the highest military recognition by the United States government. It is awarded by the president in the name of Congress.

Deputy's Wife Dies in Vehicle Wreck

HANCOCK COUNTY -- Reportedly, the wife of a deputy in Hancock County died today in a one-vehicle wreck on U.S. 43, according to a local television station.

Deputy's wife dies in Mississippi 43 wreck
WLOX TV-13/Friday, September 16, 2011

Brandi Krystal Malley, 34, is said to have died around 12:30 a.m. after her vehicle veered off the highway and overturning, according to the station's website.

Guard Unit Captain Remembers 9/11 Response

PASCAGOULA -- Their 9/11 ceremony early Sunday morning was short but heartfelt.

"We had a real small ceremony," said Capt. Tim Moseley. "We raised (the flag) and then lowered it to half staff."

Moseley said the 7:30 a.m. flag raising included all 92 members of the 859th Engineering Company at the National Guard Armory on Shortcut Road, part of the 890th Engineering Battalion.

"We had our first formation and then we lowered the flag. That was pretty much it," he said.

REMEMBERING 9/11
Liberty and diversity: Chorale performs 9/11 tribute
The Mississippi Press/Sunday, September 12, 2011

The flag was lowered to half-staff in honor and remembrance of the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which was 10 years ago Sunday.

This year's anniversary came on a day when the guard members had drill duty, but they wanted to pay their respects to the civilians, firefighters, military personnel, and others who lost their lives or helped save lives during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and on Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pa.

Moseley, like most everyone in America, remembers where he was when he heard about the attacks, beginning with American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the WTC at 8:46 a.m. , then United Airlines Flight 175 into the south tower about 15 minutes later. American Airlines Flight 77 was crashed into the Pentagon at 9:03 a.m.

United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Penn., after passengers stormed the cockpit to take back the hijacked airplane. The flight had been delayed and passengers had learned of the earlier hijackings from family members who had reached them by cell phones.

"I knew when it happened we would deploy somewhere," said Moseley, who was a platoon leader at the time. "I knew immediately there would be a response."

He said he was glad and proud that the U.S. did respond quickly and went into Iraq.

Nation marks 9/11 anniversary with
SOLEMN CEREMONIES
The Sun Herald/Monday, September 12, 2011

Military Readies for 9/11 Memories, Security

Peaceful reflections at Biloxi National Cemetery as military readies for 9/11 events that honor civilians, emergency personnel and military victims and heroes of 2001.