Local man joins other WWII vets on trip to D.C.

CELINA - World War II veteran and Celina resident Morris Now recently joined 90 other veterans in a whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., as part of a program that honors those of the Greatest Generation and all who followed in their footsteps.

Now said he was encouraged to participate in the Honor Flight by his neighbors' adult daughter. She had told him the organization especially wants World War II veterans to join since so few survive.

Of those joining Now on his Sept. 3 trip, only eight were WW II veterans. The Honor Flight left Dayton in the early morning. Now said he savored the trip that took him to see the war memorials and ended with a rousing welcome home at the end of the day. The flight was the sixth of the year out of Dayton, one of 130 Honor Flight hubs across the nation.

Accompanied by his daughter, Debra Shively of Westerville, Now flew into Reagan International Airport and was loaded onto one of three buses for the trip around the capital city and the memorials.

"The first thing we went to was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and we saw the changing of the guard at 9 in the morning. That was very interesting," Now said. "Then we went over behind the Lincoln Memorial and we did a lot of looking from that point."

On the agenda were trips to the various war memorials and the Iwo Jima Memorial. It was not Now's first visit to the World War II Memorial. He had visited with family members a few years earlier, but this time, Now got to visit with the man who chaired the World War II Memorial Campaign, former Sen. Bob Dole.

"Bob Dole spent a good many hours working with the committee on the World War II Memorial. In fact, he was chairman of the committee that put it together. I sat down and spent about five minutes talking to (him)," Now said. "He's pretty old and pretty feeble now, but he's still sharp mentally. It was really interesting talking to him. I'm not necessarily a Republican or Democrat, but I thought Bob Dole was a good guy, still think that."

Now said Dole was seated at the front, welcoming veterans to the memorial all day long.

"They made sure everybody had an opportunity to talk to him and take pictures with him," Now said. "That was an interesting part, in fact, probably the most interesting part, although it was all interesting. I really did enjoy myself."
  After the memorials and a dinner in Washington, the veterans and their escorts were loaded onto the plane back to Dayton with more surprises to come.

"When we got almost back to Dayton, they handed out the mail. Everybody got a little package full of letters and notes and so forth," Now shared. "I had almost 100 notes from different people wishing me well, some people I didn't even know."

He said a lot were from people at Grand Lake United Methodist Church and Mount Carmel Church, where he attended years ago. He did not even know church members had been informed of his trip.

The final surprise awaited at Dayton.

"Waiting in Dayton were a lot of people, an awful lot of people," Now remembered. "Nobody knew it was going to happen, but as we came off the plane, they took us a good distance in the airport. There were people lining both sides of the hallway we were going down, yelling and screaming and welcoming us home."

About 350 well-wishers turned out to honor the returning veterans. At the front of the crowd were the vets' family members. He and Shively returned home during the early morning hours the next day.

"We left at midnight one day, spent a whole day, then got home at 2 o'clock in the morning. It was a 26-hour day," he said. "Neither one of us did any sleeping during that time. It was pretty tiring, but it was an experience I hope every veteran gets a chance to have. It really was."

Now served in the U.S. Army in 1944, weeks after graduating from Celina High School.

"My mother and dad weren't too crazy about wars, and I wasn't either, but we (he and his older brother) were just in high school," Now recalled. "He went into the Marines. We just couldn't wait until we were old enough to get in. My parents wouldn't have signed for us."

Morris Now joined the 795th Field Artillery Battalion at Camp Rooker, Alabama, and was a 155mm Howitzer cannoneer. He spent about 18 months overseas in France, Belgium and Germany. He served as second cook for his outfit, supervising German prisoners who did the cooking.

"I didn't get into any action, and I've never been sorry that I didn't, but I did what I was told and was involved in it," he concluded.