Many believe it’s impossible to thank the men and women in our armed forces for the sacrifices they make defending our freedoms. Still, some efforts truly stand out.
Enter 91-year-old Douglas Hurtubise, a full-time Marathon resident since 2009 after making the trip to the islands several times as a snowbird in a 36-foot trawler with his wife Sandie. An Air Force veteran who served during the Korean War from 1951 to 1955, Hurtubice was stationed at Kimpo Air Force Base, working in the armaments division to sight in, load and repair cameras and weaponry on jets. Though he told us he doesn’t like to brag, we were able to pull out what he considers his crowning military achievement: escorting in one of the first defecting North Korean MiG jets.
And on Sept. 17, Hurtubice took to the skies for his first “mission” in decades: a one-day whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by Honor Flight South Florida, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to honoring the most senior veterans in Broward, Dade and Monroe County, the free flight is a “race against time to fly these veterans to Washington to visit and reflect at the memorials built in their honor.”
As part of the trip, Hurtubise and the other veterans received police escorts and bus transportation around the city as they paid visits to the Korean War Veterans Memorial and others before returning to South Florida, where a crowd of more than 1,000 stood waiting to welcome them home.
Accompanying Hurtubise to D.C. was Shawn Parker, who flew in from Phoenix, Arizona to accompany his grandfather on the trip. Parker described a moving scene from the veterans’ return flight to Keys Weekly.
“My favorite part was on the way home, they had what was called the ‘mail drop.’ Friends and families of the veterans, strangers, schools and volunteers wrote letters to them as if they were coming back from the war,” he said. “Doug’s was so thick he couldn’t read them all on the flight back from D.C.
“There wasn’t a single dry eye on the airplane when that happened. … We were sitting there just talking to guys we’d never met before like they were brothers.
“I had some relations that I didn’t even know existed, and some that I hadn’t heard from in years,” Hurtubise added. “It was exceptionally emotional.”
Veterans returned to a party at the Fort Lauderdale airport filled with flag-waving spectators as patriotic music played for their arrival. And while most let their companions wheel them through the welcoming party in their provided wheelchairs, Parker said Hurtubice took a different approach.
“He was like, ‘I’m not sitting in that damn thing.’ … He got me in trouble. They asked, ‘Where’s your veteran?’ and I had to say ‘He’s up there about 100 feet, shaking every single person’s hand.’”
“Doug said it was one of the best days of his life,” Sandie told the Weekly.
For more information on how to get involved with Honor Flight South Florida or submit a veteran for consideration, visit honorflightsouthflorida.org.
