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Friends experience Honor Flight together

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Local veterans (left to right) Jim Teaser, Max Abildtrup, Frank Rodenberg and Adrian Kinley went together on an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., Oct. 18. (Submitted photos)

As Korean War-era vets, the Korean War Memorial was a favorite stop.

By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times Editor

Everything’s better when you can share it with friends. For four local veterans—Adrian Kinley, Frank Rodenberg, Jim Teaser and Max Abildtrup—that was especially true Oct. 18, as they embarked together on an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C.

The Eastern Iowa Honor Flight, based in Cedar Rapids, is a non-profit organization that sends veterans to the nation’s capital to visit a variety of war memorials and historic sites.

According to Kinley, the four heard about the organization through another local veteran, Bob Eggen, who went on an Honor Flight in April.

“He was telling us we should go, that every veteran should go,” said Kinley, an Army vet who served from 1955-1958 and now lives in Monona. “We got together, were talking about, and decided to go together.”

Going as a group was a good choice, noted Rodenberg, a Marquette resident who’s also an Army veteran, serving from 1954-1956. “It made it a lot nicer.”

The Honor Flight group of around 85 veterans, most from the Korean War era, departed Cedar Rapids early the morning of Oct. 18. They touched down in D.C. around mid-morning.

A large contingent, including a band, was waiting at the airport to welcome and honor the veterans, Kinley recalled.

“You really felt like you did something,” Rodenberg commented.

From there, the group headed off to see the sites, traveling around the city in motor coach buses. Stops included the WWII, Korean and Vietnam War memorials, as well as memorials for different branches of the military. The Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery were part of the tour, as well.

Arlington left quite an impact on both Kinley and Rodenberg. (Teaser and Abildtrup recently headed south for the winter and could not be interviewed for the article.)

“I couldn’t believe it was that big,” Rodenberg said of the cemetery.

“It was so neat,” added Kinley. “Everywhere you looked, there were straight rows—and it’s on a hillside.”

The changing of the guard was especially poignant, they noted.

“They were sharp,” Kinley said, mentioning, “four of the guys in our group got to put the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”

Of the other sites, Rodenberg and Kinley said the WWII memorial was one of their favorites. As Korean War-era veterans, they also enjoyed seeing that memorial, although they were disappointed to find the memorial does not include individuals’ names like the Vietnam memorial does.

The Vietnam memorial was striking, as well, the men said. They marveled at how much the Moving Wall, the replica memorial that visited Clayton County in early July, resembled the original.

“They really did a good job on all of them,” Kinley said of the memorials.

While the group didn’t make it to all of the countless monuments in Washington, D.C., they had a good view of many of them from the Air Force memorial.

“The Air Force memorial sits right over the Pentagon,” Kinley stated. If it had been built prior to Sept. 11, “it would’ve been knocked down.”

“You can see a lot from there,” Rodenberg shared. “We were looking over all the monuments.”

After a whirlwind day, Kinley said the group headed back to the airport around 6 p.m. 

“On the way home, there was a mail call,” he said. “Everyone got a letter.”

That was a nice surprise for the veterans. They were also pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a large crowd of people when they arrived back in Cedar Rapids around 10 p.m.

“It was unbelievable,” Kinley said of the crowd. “There were Vietnam veterans, KCs, police and firemen. Quite a few family members surprised us. I’ve never had my hand shaken so many times in my life.”

“I was glad to see my family and that they enjoyed it too,” Rodenberg said.

Reflecting on their trip, Kinley and Rodenberg noted that, while the sites were great, getting to meet a lot of great people was also nice.

“There were so many friendly people,” Kinley said. “We talked to a lot of good guys. It was easy to make friends, and we got along well.”

“It was really interesting to see what they all did,” Rodenberg said of some of the other veterans. Seeing what the experience meant to everyone was touching: “A lot of them, you could see tears in their eyes.”

Now that they’ve experienced an Honor Flight for themselves, both Rodenberg and Kinley advocated for other veterans to take on the experience.

“Any veteran who’s never been out there should go,” stressed Kinley. “It’s really something to see.”

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