Al Dunn

Mr. Al Dunn went to the U.S. Air Corps at the age of 19 and demanded
that they let him enlist. He served three years and flew 128 missions in
the North Africa and the China Burma India theaters of operation. He
flew 128 missions and was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross with
oak leaf cluster, an air medal with two oak leaf clusters, as well as
the Presidential Unit Citation. He was awarded for bravery under fire
and actions beyond and above his duty. After his discharge he worked
full-time and was one of 33 young men selected by Henry Ford II to
participate in a five-year night school program. At the age of 32 he was
the youngest manager in Ford Motor Company. He has numerous successes in
business and he tells me on the phone that he's really not all that good
at retirement, but he's filling his retirement with volunteer duties
including duties as a speaker and recruiter for the Honor Flight
network. Please join me in welcoming World War II veteran and 87 years
of age, Mr. Al Dunn.

Thank you. Thank you very much. My visit yesterday and today has been
completely overwhelming with the reception I've received and the
sincerity of that reception, and I'm deeply impressed, and I want to
thank each of you personally. There are 13 members of your organization
from the Dayton area, and I would like to have them stand or wave their
arms or something, because I'm from the Dayton area. I'm a patient. Once
a month I'm at the Dayton VA hospital for follow-up tests, and I can't
say enough good things about the treatment I've received and my fellow
veterans. And I want to recognize that at the very beginning of my
comments this morning. When I got the invitation to come and speak to
you folks, of course I was thinking in terms of completely a
presentation on Honor Flight. I even brought my World War II cap and I
brought Honor Flight sweatshirts, which I happened to see yesterday on
display as well, and also the guardian sweatshirt. But you folks are way
ahead of me, and I'll have to chide Earl Morris a little bit because
when he alerted me about the invitation would be coming he didn't tell
me that he was here last year and made a presentation on Honor Flight.
So my remarks on Honor Flight will be a little bit more brief than I
initially had planned, but I do want to let you know that Honor Flight
has made tremendous strides and to me Honor Flight is the manifestation
of an individual who had an idea and who would not let it rest. He would
not listen to the naysayers that I couldn't be done, shouldn't be done,
too tough, too this, too that, and instead he carrier it out from I
guess an idea and developed it slowly but gradually until today the
record is very, very clear. In 2005 125 veterans were flown to the
Memorial. In 2006 831 veterans were flown to the Memorial, and again as
you well know, free of charge with three meals, etc. In 2007 over 5000
veterans were flown. I know that those are significant percentages in
gain of the use of the veterans coming to see their Memorial. And today
there are 69 hubs that have been replicated serving 30 states, as we
meet this morning that's the condition. And the goals for 2008, I'm glad
you're sitting down, is to fly over 12,000 veterans this year and to
have the network of Honor Flight replicated in all 50 states. Now that's
a bit of doing. I have to say with the greatest of sincerity that I've
never met an individual more humble, more dedicated, than Earl Morris.
There's no question that because of him this program has come about for
which World War II veterans are deeply indebted. And of course when
there are no more World War II veterans, or there are very few, then of
course they will be flying Korean veterans and then subsequently Vietnam
veterans. So the idea has been a revolutionary one and a very productive
one. I want to inform you that because of the work involves in managing
a successful Honor Flight, Earl Morris made a major decision in that he
gave up his position as a physician assistant at the VA hospital in
Springfield and he became the President and the only paid employee of
Honor Flight. However, as a paid employee he took a very significant
reduction in income in doing that. Now that to me is a dedication well
beyond any expectations of veterans. But that's the way Earl Morris is.
Just a marvelous individual. There is one note on the downside to my
being here today, and that is that because of the economy that we're
facing the contributions to Honor Flight have diminished a reasonably
significant amount. And so I'm hopeful that from this effort today, I
came here hoping I would have a map of all the hubs in the country,
their location, etc., and other information. But it wasn't possible for
the website people to put it in such a manner that it could be shown
here to you and copies available to you. So what I'm going to do is I'm
going to leave with Becky Monroe this listing of the current as of last
Friday current listing of the hubs, locations, and the people involved,
etc., with the hope that copies can be made and those of you who have an
interest, and I'm urging you to support the local hubs in which you're
located, and any way in which you can would be gratefully, gratefully
appreciated. Now I have one sad note also to communicate to you today,
that two weeks ago there was the first death on an Honor Flight
situation. This was an individual who was on the terminal list, his
daughter went with him on the Honor Flight and to visit the Memorial.
They had a marvelous day, he thoroughly enjoyed the situation, he
enjoyed seeing the Memorial, and it was a real highlight for him. Then
about 30 minutes, 45 minutes before landing coming home, he passed away.
And that's the first time that that's happened. Of course there was
great consternation and apparently the people that were waiting for
Honor Flight thought there was a major difficulty with the plane because
there was fire engines and ambulances and so forth, and of course when
it all settled down it was a case where they removed the veteran who had
passed away on the flight. So I wanted to pass that on to you, that
doing what you're doing and seeing the results in this particular case,
the last moments of that veteran's life were to see the Memorial, and so
I thank you very, very much. Thank you. Now rather quickly, I've been
requested the background of my military service. First I want to say
that I was an immigrant to this country, I was not born here. I was born
in a small town called Wishaw, Scotland, and Wishaw is 17 miles east of
the city of Glasgow, Scotland, which is right in the middle of Scotland.
My father was given five years to live if he stayed in Scotland. He was
a mining contractor, he owned his own company, he was also a mining
inspector, and doing very, very well economically. Unfortunately he
never did do as well in this country but that is neither here nor there,
so he came to this country and traveled extensively in determining where
they wanted to stay. He located and we stayed in Detroit, Michigan. My
mother and my brother and myself came about 15 months later. So I was
raised in Detroit. Very frankly, I worked for the Ford Motor Company, I
worked in the engineering laboratory for the Lincoln engineering
division. As we were being raised my brother and I were told many times
by my mother and father that this was the finest country in the world,
that they had accepted us, mother and dad studied every night at the
kitchen table, studying for their first papers and subsequently their
second papers to become citizens. My brother and I became citizens
through that process. Then my father was so dedicated to this country,
he literally memorized the U.S. Constitution. He made it very clear as
we were growing up that if this country were ever invaded that we would
be in the military service. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Pearl Harbor
came along, my brother and I went down to enlist. They took him but they
wouldn't take me. The reason was the fact that there was a line blocks
long of people enlisting, and the recruiting sergeant would come down
the line, what do you do, what do you do, what do you do, and they came
to me and I said well I work for Lincoln engineering division and right
now we're busy converting the B24 bomber prints from their manufacturer
to prepare the manufacturer of the bomber at the Willow Run plant of the
Ford Motor Company. So they said go home, we'll get you later. I went
back several times and each time I was told the same thing until finally
in late July of 1942 I went back to the recruiting office and told them
I quit my job and I was going to take two weeks vacation at one of the
coastal towns in Michigan, and then I wanted to be in the service. So
that was it, and I enlisted, and the young lady I was dating at that
time, by the way, I met her when she was 14, I was 15. And her parents
were pleased to have me ask for her hand in marriage, and so the Friday
evening before I went in the service we were engaged. And then I went
through the basic training, went to \_\_\_\_\_\_ Norway, was trained as
a radio and radar operator, went to gunnery school, was trained in
gunnery, and then I applied for OCS and I thought I was applying for Air
Force OCS. I ended up in the infantry OCS at Fort Benning, Georgia. And
so I finished 12 ½ weeks of training, and the final phase training
problem was under actual live fire. I was carrying a 30 caliber of a
machine gun on my back, a tripod of a machine gun on my back, the fire
opened up and I went down in a hurry to escape it, and lo and behold, my
knee hit a large boulder but only about an inch or two was shown above
the earth's surface. So I cracked the kneecap in two and tore the
cartilages and dislocated the leg. So I spent about 3 or 4 months in the
hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia. I finally wrote to my squadron
commander and said get me the hell out of here. So I went back to the
Air Force, Air Corps rather, just in time to use a cane and walk up the
gangplank of a troop ship going overseas to Africa. And I was assigned
to a B25 squadron, B25 Mitchell bomber as a radio operator, radar and
gunner, etc., etc. When I arrived there of course the campaign in North
Africa, it was the tail end of the campaign. But we did low level
strafing missions, we started to find out through the rumor mill that we
were being shifted to India. Now this was absolutely against all
secrecy, all control of the military, etc. But it was known even among
the workers at the base camps at which we were located, and so sure
enough we boarded the ships, there were six ships in the convoy, we
boarded the ships at Oran, North Africa, early October of 1943, and of
course we were concerned since there was no secret to it. There were six
ships in the convoy, so frankly on Sunday, I guess we left on Saturday,
Sunday morning why a buddy of mine who had been in the ministry, just
getting started in the ministry, we decided he would preach the sermon
and I would lead the singing and the prayers on the stern of the ship.
So on Sunday morning we probably had 50 individuals and a ship that
probably had roughly 500 troops. Sunday was fine, Monday was fine,
Tuesday just before noon why the alarms went off in the ship and
everybody was commanded to be on deck, etc. and a flight of Stuka dive
bombers, obviously the German Air Force came at us, and the bombed and
strafed every ship. They sank two of the ships, all hands were lost. I'm
here today only because first the good Lord, and secondly I had the
presence of mind of getting next to the bulkhead and lying prone against
the bulkhead. And of course out here would be the railing of the ship
and the troops that were between us, myself and the railing, I can't
describe what 50 caliber machine guns do to the human body, and so our
ship had two funnels and one of the pilots, I guess he wanted to hot rod
it, and after strafing us he came around and flew between those funnels
and below the height of the funnels. So needless to say we had some
uncouth names for him. So at any rate we managed to get into portside on
the Suez Canal and the ships went through some repair work and tested
and made sure they were okay, then of course we went through to India
via the Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, etc. And so when we got there, of
course we were no longer a complete Air Force group, we were so badly
dismembered, so I was assigned to the 315th Troop Carrier Squadron, and
our job was to supply the battle of Burma and also portions of China. In
Burma we supplied everything from a Band-Aid to machine guns,
ammunition, explosives, foods of all kinds. I remember so well the first
time I saw the jump crew pushing out 100 pound sacks of rice and seeing
these Chinese troops, who'd never seen this before but they knew it was
food, running and trying to catch the 100 pound sacks of rice. The
Chinese Army lost some men that day. We supplied the battle of Burma. We
supplied it to the Merrill's Marauders, outstanding combat organization.
The Wingate Raiders, likewise, and also the Chinese 14th division. On
occasion we would be required to push out donkeys, jackasses, however we
used parachutes with them. Their purpose was of course to carry heavy
loads for the troops. When I went to the troop carrier I thought boy,
this is a cushy assignment, this is really going to be easy. Well the
difficulty was that we had three enemies. Number one was the Japanese
Air Force, number two was the Himalayan Mountains, and number three was
the monsoon season. And the monsoon season in Burma, we flew 30, 31 days
a month, never saw the ground, never saw anything, it rained constantly
all the time, nothing like it. So that was the experience there, and
then on occasion we would get an assignment to fly to a location and
pick up wounded troops, and of course we would take with us and refit
the aircraft with stretchers and we'd take with us nurses to help the
troops during the flight. I can't describe to you the feeling when we
were under attack. Instead of the nurses seeking some sort of protection
for themselves what did they do? They put their bodies on top of the
veterans on the stretchers, to protect the veterans, or the troopers.
They were veterans of the campaign but they were not veterans as we
think of veterans today. And they would protect at all cost, giving
their own life if necessary, the patients that they were serving. I've
never forgotten their heroic behavior, etc. And so that was the flying
that I was doing. Of course in the meantime for nine months we were
based at a jungle airstrip and there was no worse hell on earth than
being in the Burma jungles. I became familiar with poisonous snakes, boa
constrictors, wild animals. We had a buddy system and you dare not leave
the strip and go maybe a quarter mile or a half mile away because if you
did and you didn't have a compass, you'd never get back. You wouldn't
because the jungles were so overgrown, so it was not a good situation at
all. Now I'll revert back, no I'm sorry. Then of course I went in for a
flight physical and the doctor took one look at me and checked me and
said how horrible condition I was in, and I had a very, very serious
hernia and I had some shrapnel in my right thigh, so he was going to
send me to 20th general hospital. Well even though the doctor was an
officer, I lost it. I shouted and frankly screamed that what did I have
to do to get to go home, that I felt I was among the highest mission
individuals in the squadron. He checked the record and immediately
issued the order to send me home, they flew me to Cairo, Egypt. From
there they flew me to Casablanca. From there I was put on a hospital
ship. I arrived in the New York harbor March 12th of 1945. March 16th of
1945 I arrived in Detroit, Michigan. My mother and father and my
wife-to-be walked toward me and they were not more than six, seven,
eight foot away from me, they walked past me, never recognized me. So I
turned around and flippantly said what the hell does a guy have to do to
have his family recognize him? I weighed 116 pounds. My mother dropped
to her knees, crying and screaming what have they done to you? Four days
later I was a married man. My wife, I had cabled her that I was coming
home, so she had about 25 to 30 days and she arranged the wedding, we
were married in the Martha Mary Chapel in Greenfield Village in Dearborn
Michigan, and that's the church that was named after Mr. and Mrs. Henry
Ford Sr.'s parents. Mr. Ford's mother and Mrs. Ford's mother. We had the
reception at the Dearborn Inn, so we had two weeks of marvelous
recuperating time and then went down to of all places Coral Gables,
Florida, which was a very posh country club turned into a hospital, and
then the doctors came through there and an officer came through one day
and asked how many had 85 points. Germany had just capitulated and so
not knowing what a point was I raised my hand, they took my name, and
the next day the officer came in and said Sergeant, you're going home.
Of course I was not very pleasant, I said don't kid me, that's too damn
serious to be kidding. He said I'm not kidding, you're going home. So
June 6th of 1945 I was home a civilian. My mother had sold my car to
keep sending me money because when I got a furlough I would go to
Calcutta, India, and I would stay in the most posh hotel and the most
finest restaurants, and so particularly when I was in Burma I never
expected to get home. In fact, I planned that I wasn't coming home, that
I never would get home. And so this was a real heart-warming situation,
to be home. Anyhow, I was discharged. Two or three days later my wife
and I, not having a car, we would travel in busses and streetcars, and I
want to tell you folks, you've never seen our country as bonded as they
were. I doubt that we'll ever be as bonded again unless we have a major,
major battle on our hands. But no man ever spoke to me disparagingly,
but every woman on that bus or streetcar called me every foul name you
can think of because I was wearing the pin I received at discharge and
it was nicknamed by the military a ruptured duck. It had the American
eagle, it was a very small pin. The only problem was the military didn't
tell the public what that pin meant, and so these people didn't know. In
fact my wife would break down several times and she would say why don't
you tell them what you've done, and I would say honey, they wouldn't
believe me because I was in civilian clothes and each one of the women
would remind me that they lost a relative, a sister, brother, etc., and
what in the hell was I doing there, why was I not in uniform and you're
a blank, blank, blank civilian, etc. That was my reception to civilian
life. But frankly I excused them, I knew exactly why they felt that way,
and when I got a woman that was more rational I would comment to her
that I understood completely. So that's my flying experience. I retired
four years ago, five years ago, and I dislike retirement intensely. I
volunteer a number of organizations, and I'd be most remiss if I didn't
say I am extremely impressed by being your guest here. I was given the
opportunity of your hospital, the room in which you display the
make-believe hospital I believe you call it, and I'm so impressed. And I
say this having been the Vice Chairman of the board of the largest
hospital in Dayton for nine years. I was Chairman of the corporate
planning committee. There were three of us put on that board to get the
hospital turned around from horrible, horrible financial and medical
situations. Today just a week ago it and another hospital in the city
were named among the top 15 hospitals in the country. And so I'm urging
someway, somehow, whoever, here in this audience to be sure and
publicize what you're doing. The public doesn't know it. Publicize what
you're doing because I am sick and tired if something isn't quite right,
you folks know it and you're working on it, but the newspapers make it
public and they just rip you to pieces about your system. In fact, I
make it a point to go back to Dayton and speak to some people on the
Dayton Daily News staff that I know. But I think that ought to be
publicized. I think you folks are doing a tremendous job. And now I
would be remiss indeed if I did not pay my respects, my thanks, my
gratitude, to Becky Monroe and to Rosie Henisofa. They've been very
helpful to me on this trip. Two wonderful people, dedicated people, as
I'm sure you well know, and I would leave with you folks, I'm asking
God's blessings on each of you be with you, keep you in health and
strength, and keep you dedicated to your mission. Thank God. Amen.