Paying Homage to ‘the greatest generation’

By Terra Temple, State Gazette
September 26, 2006

While guys like Ray Graves, Norm Biehn, Al Greenburg, Fred Samuels, Carl Biehn and Wayne Ferguson were training at or conducting training at the Dyersburg Army Air Base, Fred Burback was putting together model airplanes at his Nebraska home.

“I wanted to be a pilot,” he said. “Years later, I wanted to join the Air Force but they said I was too tall so I joined the Army and went to Vietnam.”

But a love for flying –and an admiration for the airman of World War II—remained in Burback’s blood.

“You guys are the greatest generation. All I can say is thanks a lot,” he said to the nine World War II veterans present for Saturday’s festivities during the 20th Anniversary of Homecoming ’86.

While weather altered Saturday’s plans for the reunion, the celebration of World War II vets and the DAAB continued.

“For World War II vets, their whole life was monitor and adjust,” said Pat Higdon, president of the DAAB Memorial Association and director of the Veterans’ Museum, noting how the festivities were moved into the museum at the last minute.

The arrangement – or the weather – didn’t stop the camaraderie between veterans and those interested in hearing their stories.

Graves, who now lives in Arizona, was a B-17 pilot. He got his four months of training at the base in 1943-44 before being sent to England where he flew 35 missions with the 94th bomb group.

Brothers Norm and Carl Biehn grew up on the West Coast and both joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, without the other’s knowledge. They both served as radio operators in the Pacific from the time the war began until November 1942. Both were stationed at DAAB from March 1943 until the base closed in 1945 as communication chiefs. Norm, who flew 33 missions in the South Pacific, lives in California. Carl, who flew 39 missions in the Pacific, is now in Utah.

Greenburg got his bombardier training at DAAB in 1944. He and his crew did their mission practices doing simulated bomb runs on Biloxi, Miss., and Toledo, Ohio. He served 35 missions with the 96th bomb group in England. When he was being prepared to go to Japan, word came of the bombings. He returned home to New York.

Samuels, of Oak Park, Ill., also got his pilot training at the DAAB in 1944. However, “we had the misfortune of a crash” which killed eight of the 10 crew members. He and the other pilot survived. He was in the hospital for a year and when he returned to the base, it was being shut down.

After picking up his crew in Nebraska, Ferguson went to the DAAB in August 1944 for his pilot training. They left in September and made their way to Italy where they flew 50 missions with the 175th squad of the 463rd bomb group. After finishing his missions, he was returning to the States and learned of V-E Day. With the war still being fought in Japan, he got discharged and went back home to Tulsa, Okla.

“The air base was an opportunity for young men from various backgrounds to become men and start their flight path,” said Lauderdale County Mayor Rod Schuh. “We’re here to remember the history, events and people (of that time). That was the most important era of U.S. history. World War II made America what it is – a very, very great country.”

It’s because of them that Jeff and Deb Haylett left the Boss Hoss National Rally for a few hours on Saturday.

“I have much respect for the vets. I try every time I see one to shake his hand and say thanks,” Jeff Haylett said. “If not for them, we’d be speaking Japanese or German.”

The Hayletts, who live in Southern Michigan, learned about the Veterans’ Museum last year when they came down for the Boss Hoss Festival. They saw a sign while riding to Memphis and stopped on their way back up. That day, they met and spent a few hours talking to World War II vets Bob Little and Leroy Neal, both of Dyersburg.

This year, coming to the reunion celebration while also visiting the festival worked perfectly for the couple. With he being a new Boss Hoss owner, the couple hopes to make both stops again next year.

“These guys have given so much,” Haylett said of all the vets. “I appreciate what they did.”

It’s that appreciation that made Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, want to designate Highway 51 as West Tennessee’s segment of the state’s Purple Heart Trail. He dedicated that portion during Saturday’s opening ceremony.

The Purple Heart was first conceived by Gen. George Washington in August 1782. The trail was established in 1992 by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to commemorate and honor all men and women who have been wounded or killed in combat while serving in the U.S. armed forces. It originates in Mount Vernon, Va., and traverses the United States to California. More than 20 states have implemented the trail, including Hawaii. The trail has also been implemented in Puerto Rico and Guam.

“By joining the Purple Heart Trail, the state of Tennessee pays homage to those for whom no tribute was sought, no compensation set, no expectation of greater glory envisioned. This state owes them more than homage,” Norris said. “Our nation is at war. Tennesseans are in the fight for freedom once again. They are now returning home in record numbers. We must do better in serving them.”

That service to veterans, Norris said, means not assuming: the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs is adequately funded or properly staffed; that laws against discrimination in employment are enforced; and that access to affordable health care is the order of the day; and abuse or neglect at state veterans’ nursing homes must not be tolerated.

“As we celebrate the anniversary of Tennessee’s Homecoming and all that makes us unique as a community, let’s rededicate ourselves to our veterans as they, too, come home,” Norris said. “And thank them for the embodiment of what makes us truly unique as a state and a nation – that they would sacrifice their life and liberty to keep us free.”

Norris worked for three years to get the Purple Heart Trail designation of Highway 51.

“My dad was a B-24 pilot for Great Britain and the U.S. (during World War II). He flew 92 missions,” Norris said of wanting the designation. “Our veterans have not had something dedicated to them. This has been in the works coast to coast for 14 years. I saw the opportunity to get 51 designated and it’s possible because of their service.”