Mon, Nov 23 2009
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Published November 07, 2009 10:39 pm - Anzio, Italy. That was the worst. Ninety days hunkering down in a swamp, living in a foxhole, except for when the freshly wounded arrived. 4 local veterans soar on Honor Flight Organization paid to fly WW II vets to Washington to see memorials, be honored for their service By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com Star Beacon Anzio, Italy. That was the worst. Ninety days hunkering down in a swamp, living in a foxhole, except for when the freshly wounded arrived.
A hundred new casualties every night, amputation after amputation, wound after wound. There was no to end to the horrors born of truculent warfare. Of the 10 World War II campaigns Ellsworth R. Marteeny of Conneaut experienced, Anzio is the one he remembers most. From Algeria-French Morocco to Central Europe, he served with the 7th Army, 3rd Division. When they landed on Africa, they were 10,000 strong. When they left Austria at the end of the conflict, their numbers had been whittled to 600. So many were lost at Anzio south of Rome that Marteeny, 94, says he never bothered to make friends with the fresh recruits. “We’d get new recruits on one day, and the next day I’d be patching them up,” says Marteeny, who was a surgical technician. “I never got attached to any one.” Marteeny received two purple hearts with oak leaf clusters, eight bronze stars and numerous other medals. On Oct. 28, he and more than three dozen other servicemen and women from the Greatest Generation received another honor: an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., the Honor Flight. Initially conceived by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and retired U.S. Air Force captain, the Honor Flight’s purpose is to fly veterans to Washington to visit the memorials that honor their sacrifices. The nonprofit organization raises the money to provide the transportation, meals and tours at no charge to the vets, who fly to the nation’s capital on commercial aircraft. The Oct. 28 flight out of Cleveland-Hopkins was organized by Joe Benedict, director of flight operations for the Honor Flight Cleveland, who says they have taken approximately 1,500 northeast Ohio veterans to Washington, D.C., since the program began here three years ago. The typical flight has 70 veterans plus guardians, and costs $21,000. Honor Flight raises the money through donations, most of it coming from individuals and veterans organizations. Priority is given to the oldest veterans of World War II. Terminally ill Korean and Vietnam vets are also given priority. While Honor Flight Cleveland usually has a waiting list of several hundred veterans, the list is quite small these days, and Benedict urges veterans to go online and apply at www.honorflightcleveland.com. The trips will resume in April 2010. Four veterans from Ashtabula County — Marteeny of Conneaut, Captain Buck of Geneva, and Thomas Andolsek and Charles Devereaux of Ashtabula — made the final trip out of Cleveland for this year. Nick Kozak of Ashtabula Township also qualified for the flight but could not make it because of medical issues. Hazel Phillips, Marteeny’s daughter, accompanied him. Charles Devereaux was accompanied by daughter Mary Beth Dixon, and Buck’s son Charles went with his father. Honor Flight does not pay the way for the spouses or children, who pay $250 to participate. The veterans learned about the program just a few weeks before taking flight with it. The men say they wanted to see the World War II, Iwo Jima and Korean War memorials, the Vietnam Wall and Arlington Cemetery. They wanted to see how the nation had chosen to honor them. “I thought it would be an honor to go,” said Buck. “I wanted to see the memorial to the World War II vets. I’d heard a lot about it and wanted to see it.” 
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