Salute And Honor on Holiday Hiatus

NOTICE TO SALUTE AND HONOR FOLLOWERS:

Except for special events, this blog will not post updates during December 2011.

However, please follow 2011 posts that may be updated and edited for additional coverage of some events during the year.

THANK YOU so very much for your interest, and KEEP FOLLOWING us. 

During this hiatus, please add your comments to 2011 and previous posts. ALSO, let us know what you'd like to see in future posts to SaluteAndHonor.blogspot.com

Vivian Austin -- 228-623-8883

Wounded Warrior Walk to Help Veteran

BILOXI -- The Wounded Warrior Walk across the Biloxi Bay Bridge will help Army Sgt. Sjosterner Ellis of Columbus. 

The walk took place Saturday, Nov. 26, under sunny skies, and saw numerous active duty military personnel, veterans, their family members, and community residents make their way across the expanse between Biloxi and Ocean Springs.

Donna Anderson of Ocean Springs, a wounded warrior case manager at Keesler Air Force Base,      and Ret. Air Force Staff Sgt. Naomi Mathis founded the walk's sponsor, Combat Wounded Veterans of South Mississippi, during February.

www.WoundedWarriorProject.org

CWVSM helps veterans with every day financial problems while they wait for Veteran Administration benefits. So far, according to Anderson, they have provided aid to five veterans who have made the transition back to civilian life.   

Ellis, a Purple Heart recipient, was wounded while serving in Iraq, according to media reports.

Walk Raises Money for Wounded Vets
Sun Herald/Sunday, November 27, 2011
Photo Gallery: Wounded Warriors Project 

South Mississippians Walk for Warriors
WLOX TV-13/Saturday, November 26-27, 2011

Operation Never Forget Wants New Home for Seabee Baldwin

BILOXI -- Claudia Baldwin wants to see the bust of her husband -- Builder Chief Joel Baldwin -- put on permanent display at the Seabee base or at the Naval Construction Training Center. Right now the bust is at Negroto's Gallery in Biloxi, where it was unveiled on Monday.

Operation Never Forget Honors Local Hero
Sun Herald/Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011

Baldwin, a builder chief at Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 (MCB-7), died in Iraq during 2004.

Operation Never Forget, according to the Sun Herald, is a nonprofit charity that memorializes fallen service members with bronze bust statues. About 24 busts have been created since 2007, and more are in progress. Each statue costs about $6,000, and are paid for through community fundraisers, the media quoted Operation officials.

New Faces Join Veterans at Breakfast

Donald Evans (left), who served in the Persia Gulf, and Jimmy Cox, an Army infantryman, attended the Veterans' Breakfast on Monday. Cox was a first-timer, but Evans has attended about 12 years. Assistant Superintendent (top) Bernard Rogers, school board officials Dan Marks and Mike Concannon were at the military celebration for local veterans.

Wally Molby, who turns 80 on Wednesday, served in the Air Force during the Korean War. "This thing here is the most wonderful thing that's happened to me since I've been a veteran."

GAUTIER -- Jimmy Cox was among the first-time veterans who attended the Veterans' Breakfast held Monday at Gautier High School.

Teachers, students, and district officials have sponsored the morning meal and honor program for 12 years.  

"I've been intending to come and I've always been working," said Cox. "I set aside time to come this year."
Cox served in the infantry from 1969 to 1970 during the Vietnam War. "This is wonderful," he said of the breakfast.

Cox's friend Donald Evans has attended the Veterans' Breakfast almost since its inception.

"I do it every year," he said. "I missed the first year."

He comes because of the honor and to meet friends. "A lot of these guys I've been knowing since my childhood. I didn't know they were Vietnam vets."

Evans served in the Navy, and jokingly says that his friends put on the wrong uniform. "These guys just signed the wrong papers."

(Look for more information, quotes and photographs in future updates.)

An 800-Mile Walk for Their Fallen Comrades

GAUTIER -- By the time the clock neared 2:45 p.m., Chief Master Sgt.Lee Shaffer and Ret. Major Tom Newman had made their way to the highway entrance of Shell Landing on U.S. 90.
Gautier police accompanied the men, two among 18 airmen on an 812-mile trek to honor fallen comrades of special tactics in the U.S. Air Force -- the Tim Davis Memorial March.
Information at www.specialopswalk.com said the march helps to raise funds for the Special Ops Foundation, which provides support for families of deceased special ops airmen.
Residents follow the airmen and post photographs at www.facebook.com/afsocofficial.
Schaffer and Newman were walking east toward Pascagoula, wearing an orange safety vest and carrying an American flag and 50-pound snap sacks. The march's bus and the remaining airmen were behind at a distance, though they soon passed their fellow airmen on foot.
Newman said the march started at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and is will conclude Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Hurlbert Field in Florida.
Mississippi is one of five states included in the trek, which also passes through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.
On their eastbound journey, 18 airmen, their tour bus and other equipment arrived in Gulfport about 5 a.m. today, said reports at WLOX TV-13. They visited Biloxi High School and stopped near Keesler Air Force Base, where Keesler personnel joined the memorial marchers for about three miles, according to the Sun Herald.
They then proceeded through Ocean Springs, Gautier and Pascagoula, and on eastward into Alabama on Monday.

Fallen airmen honored in third memorial march
The Sun Herald/Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Elite Air Force's unit march honors fallen airmen
Mississippi Press/Tuesday, October 25, 2011

This year marks the third for the memorial march, and 2011 specifically honors Tech Sgts. John Brown and Daniel Zerbe and Staff Sgt. Andy Harvell. They died Aug. 6 when their aircraft was shot down in Afghanistan, according to local media.

Honor Flight Booth At Jackson County Fair

PASCAGOULA -- Jen Walton said that t-shirts for the Honor Flight will be available at the Jackson County Fair this week at the group's booth in the county's civic center.

The booth will be open from 5 to 9 p.m.

Volunteers will be allowed to provide a shirt and other items for donations to the Honor Flight program.

Applications for guardians and veterans will be available at the booth.

Volunteers are needed.

Veterans Parade Set for Memorial Monument in Moss Point

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.