Ray Fleming takes Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.

Ray Fleming of Belleville was overcome with emotion as he told how a little girl shook his hand late in the evening on Sept. 10, looking him in the eyes and saying, “Thank you, veteran. Thank you for saving my country.”
“It was an overwhelming experience, something every veteran should have,” said Fleming, who turns 86 on Oct. 1.
He refers to the Talons Out Honor Flight he took from Kalamazoo Airport to Dulles International Airport and back that day that ended up with a big celebration and parade at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo.
Although their flight was late returning and the festivities didn’t start until after 10 p.m., their route was lined with families with babies and little girls reaching out to shake the veterans’ hands and thank them personally for their service.
“I was just beyond honored,” Fleming said. “I was speechless. I told the people of Kalamazoo that I didn’t know how to act. I’ve never been honored like that before.”
“Our wish is that every Korean and World War II veteran experience this,” said Ray’s wife Betty. “This was more than he ever, ever expected. It was done with such dignity.”
The Talons Out Honor Flight is the Southeastern Michigan hub for the national Honor Flight Network. They fly World War II and Korean War veterans from in and around Southeastern Michigan to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials built in their honor, at no cost to them.
Ray said the all-volunteer organization operates on generous donations. The Talons Out Honor Flights run about three times a year at a cost of about $93,000 each.
“It’s a spectacular trip from beginning to end,” Betty said.
Ray Fleming served in the Korean War from 1952 to 1956. He was on a destroyer for four years as a Boiler Tender Second Class. His job was below decks where the noise was really loud. That noise affected his hearing.
Ray’s daughter Patty Ruggio read a story about the Honor Flight a year and a half ago and filled out the application for her father. Patty’s husband Ron Ruggio, a Navy veteran from the Vietnam War, accompanied Ray on the trip as his companion.
At a full sit-down dinner for about 150 in Kalamazoo on Friday evening, Ray said he got to meet a lot of veterans. In the morning his flight took off, carrying about 32 WWII vets and 36 Korean vets.
Fleming said the plane got a water salute from a fire truck as it took off in Kalamazoo, as it landed in Washington, and then as it took off and landed again. It was spectacular, he said.
After landing in Washington, the vets were loaded onto deluxe buses and escorted by four motorcycles and a police cruiser, “just as if we were President of the United States.” They cut right through the heavy traffic and went through red lights, “like we were heroes,” he said.
The veterans were taken to the WWII monument, to those for the Korean and Vietnam wars, and more, with a total of eight different monuments. They also were in the front row of the Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
There were vets from Nevada and New Mexico as well as Michigan at the Arlington ceremony.
“They kept feeding us and making us drink a lot of water,” Fleming said, noting the temperature in Washington was 93-95 degrees that day. Their escorts insisted all the vets ride in wheelchairs.
On the way back, after a full day, someone called out, “Mail call. Mail call,” and presented piles of letters to each veteran. Mail call was what servicemen looked forward to and so this was extremely touching, Betty said.
The letters were from members of each veteran’s family – children and adults – and from perfect strangers, all thanking them for their service.
Betty said some woman wanted to make a lap quilt for each veteran on this trip and she completed 30 and died in July before her project was complete. Her daughter wanted to complete her mother’s project so she got help through her church and each veteran received a lap quilt in honor of that woman.
Families with World War II and Korean veterans may check out the local Honor Flights web site to get an application for their veteran at: http://talonsouthonorflight.org .