Newtown Veteran Celebrates ‘Day Of Honor’

By Nancy K. Crevier

At 83 years of age, Newtown resident Darius Hallabeck falls just below the average 86.6 years of age of the men and women who traveled with him on Saturday, September 25, to Washington, D.C. A corporal in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, Mr Hallabeck was one of 148 men and two women World War II veterans, who took part in the AmericanWarrior Sixth Day of Honor Flight to the nation’s capital, to tour five war memorials and Arlington Cemetery.

AmericanWarrior is a nonprofit group founded in 2006 by Christopher Coutu of Norwich, where AmericanWarrior is headquartered. The mission of the organization is to “support and honor American veterans and patriotic operations,” according to its website. The first Day of Honor flight was completed on September 15, 2007, and the organization now tries to fly 100 to 150 veterans and their guardians — volunteers who pay their own way to accompany and aid veterans during the day — two times each year.

In addition to providing veterans an opportunity to visit the Washington, D.C., memorials dedicated to those who have served in the country’s Armed Forces, and which for most veterans now living will be an only opportunity, AmericanWarrior also assists in bringing veterans and their stories to schools, senior centers, and other organizations.

“It was the longest and most enjoyable day of my life,” Mr Hallabeck said on Monday, September 27, as he reflected on the event that began last Saturday with a dawn-of-day limousine ride, escorted by 14 Harley-Davidson motorcycles from the Danbury Harley Owners Group (HOG), from the Blue Colony Diner in Newtown to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.

It was a day that nearly did not take place for Mr Hallabeck, who served with the 25th Fighter Squadron as an airplane armorer in Okinawa, Ryukyus Islands, Japan, 65 years ago. Even though he was awarded the Army of Occupation Medal, Japan, and the World War II Victory Medal, when he was first approached by his son Don’s friend, Mark Lapkey, a HOG member, to take part in the AmericanWarrior Day of Honor Flight, he was not sure he wanted to do so.

“I hadn’t heard of AmericanWarrior before,” Mr Hallabeck admitted, “and I thought a lot of the vets would be guys in wheelchairs, and I hadn’t even gotten hurt in combat. I thought it was for the wounded vets who were in rough condition now. But my ‘guardian,’ Erin Figueiredo, told me that it was for every American veteran. Plus,” he joked, “when I found out I’d get a couple of T-shirts, I decided I could use a couple more.”

“He was reluctant,” said Ms Figueiredo, of Fairfield, “and told me he felt others did more than he had done [during the war]. He was concerned that he would be taking the place of someone who should go.”

She had experienced her own father’s elation last spring, however, when the World War II Navy veteran went with AmericanWarrior to Washington, D.C.

“That’s why I signed up to be a guardian. My father was so thrilled, and still is, to this day. So my husband, Victor, and I made a trip to Mr Hallabeck’s house and convinced him to go. He was just flabbergasted by the experience,” she said.

“I was honored to be there with them,” Ms Figueiredo said. “The veterans have done so much for their country.”

HOG member Ron Inconstanti coordinates the motorcycle escort for the Danbury Harley riders.

“This is the fifth time that we’ve escorted a veteran,” said Mr Inconstanti. When he first heard about AmericanWarrior, Mr Inconstanti, whose late father was a World War II veteran, thought that it was “a nice thing to do. My father, of course, will never get to do this, and there are so many other veterans who won’t ever get to [see the Washington memorials],” he said. “So many are passing on every day.”

The AmericanWarrior website notes that between 1,200 and 1,500 World War II veterans die each day.

Mr Inconstanti raised up the idea of sponsoring an area veteran for the program at a HOG meeting. The idea was so well received that enough to pay for five veterans, each costing approximately $250 to go on a flight, was collected that evening. “We sponsor one veteran a year now,” said Mr Inconstanti, “and do it up right. The limousine, paid for by our group, picks up the vet at his or her home, and we provide the escort of 15 to 20 Harley-Davidsons.” The motorcycles accompany the limousine all the way to Bradley Airport, rain or shine.

“Mr Hallabeck, who was submitted by another HOG member, Mark Lapkey, was elated to go,” said Mr Inconstanti — once the veteran got past the initial and common response of most veterans: “Why me?”

“They are a very humble bunch, the veterans who go,” Mr Inconstanti said. “Anyone who has been a part of a team that served our country deserves to go [to Washington, D.C. to see the monuments and memorials],” he added.

“Darry’s [Darius Hallabeck’s] son, Don, is a really good friend of mine,” said Mr Lapkey, “so when HOG was looking for a vet to support this year, I suggested him.”

Exhausting But             Exhilarating

By 6:45 am, said Mr Hallabeck, the trip to Bradley Airport was underway.

“It was a beautiful day for flying. Then when we landed, we were on a bus that took us first to the World War II Memorial. It’s mind-boggling, the beauty of it,” he said.

Mr Hallabeck was just 18 years old and a senior in high school when he was drafted in 1945. His family tried, and he tried, for a deferment, but at the time it was legal to draft young men still attending secondary school.

“I didn’t tell the school I was leaving for Fort Devon in Massachusetts, so about two or three weeks into training, my mother wrote that the truant officers were looking for me. ‘He’s at Fort Bragg in North Carolina now,’” he said his mother told the school officials. ‘“I guess you can go down there if you want him.’”

After basic training with the Army, Mr Hallabeck was transferred to a company with the Air Forces.

“I continued with training as an aircraft and engine mechanic,” he recalled, before serving in the Pacific Theater, and then in occupied Japan. He was honorably discharged in 1947, but remained in the Reserves, serving stateside during the Korean Conflict.

Saturday’s trip to Washington, D.C., was the first time Mr Hallabeck had been to the capital since he was a very small boy, he said, and the trip exceeded his expectations.

“The whole thing was so well orchestrated. I can’t express what it is like,” he said. “The care the guardians give you is incredible. Erin is a wonderful lady,” said Mr Hallabeck, referring to the woman who guided him and two others in his group last weekend.

In addition to the World War II Memorial and Arlington Cemetery, the veterans visited the Navy Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, and the Army/Air Force Memorial during the exhausting but exhilarating day.

“The statues in the Korean Memorial are so realistic, and Arlington Cemetery was unbelievable. Everything,” emphasized Mr Hallabeck, “was very impressive. I didn’t think it would be that way.”

As extraordinary as the memorials were, it was the final landing of the aircraft back at Bradley Airport that evening that left Mr Hallabeck awestruck.

“First they unloaded those vets in wheelchairs. Then the rest of us got off,” he said. To his surprise, “There were thousands of people, it looked like, lining the length of the terminal, thanking us and shaking our hands. There were a couple of bands — it was really something,” said the veteran, who like many of those with him, had not received such a hero’s welcome at the end of their service in the war. It was the second time that day that the veterans had been honored. A welcoming committee had also greeted them enthusiastically upon their arrival at Reagan Airport that morning.

Mr Inconstanti and Mr Lapkey were among the many people welcoming back the veterans from Washington, D.C., as were members of the Patriot Guard, Mr Inconstanti said, a group originally formed to honorably receive back those fallen in service to the country, and also to welcome back veterans from Day of Honor Flights. “It was the biggest number of Patriot Guards I’ve ever seen there,” said Mr Inconstanti, “and the smiles on the faces of the veterans are indescribable.”

“You have to be there,” said Mr Lapkey of the “hullabaloo” at the airport on Saturday night. “It’s a true hero’s welcome, at last.”

Mr Hallabeck spent Sunday resting and reflecting on the trip.

“It’s a lot to take in, and it’s really emotional, what you go through. I felt it the next day when I had time to think on it,” he said.

AmericanWarrior is planning a Seventh Day of Honor Flight in the spring of 2011. To nominate a veteran for the Day of Honor Flight, or to find out more about becoming a Day of Honor guardian, visit www.AmericanWarrior.us, select “missions,” and then AmericanWarrior Day of Honor.

“I wish everyone could realize what it was like,” Mr Hallabeck said. “It was quite an experience.”