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Honor Flight Helps Shorewood Woman Celebrate Father's Service

Saturday, 300 veterans will fly to Washington D.C. Jan Zehren remembers her experience as a guardian last September.

Jan Zehren said when she received a call last year, informing her she would be a guardian on a September flight celebrating military veterans, she knew it was meant to be.

She would take the flight in the memory of her father.

Saturday, hundreds of World War II veterans will take an Honor Flight to Washington D.C. to visit their memorials, accompanied by volunteer guardians.

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The Stars and Stripes Honor Flights program offers not only physical but emotional journeys to restore the sense of pride and public support that many veterans did not experience on their first homecoming.

“900 heroes pass from us each day. They take their stories and history and enormous bravery with them,” the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight web site reminds us.

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Zehren, a physical education teacher at Shorewood Intermediate School, wanted nothing more than to hear her father, Allan Scholz's story. A veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the start of the Vietnam War, Zehren’s father finally agreed to tell his story at the first Veterans Day assembly Zehren organized over the last 13 years.

“He was a very humble man. I was thrilled when my Dad agreed to be our first keynote speaker because I finally learned about some of his military experiences,” Zehren said of her father’s speech at Lake Bluff Elementary School.

Sadly, Zehren’s father passed away six months before the National World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. was completed in 2004.

“It was dedicated on my Dad's birthday, May 29," she said. "My family felt it was a fitting tribute for Dad as he so loved his country."

In December 2009, Zehren applied to be a guardian on an honor flight to accompany a local veteran to see the memorial. When she received the phone call that she had been approved as a guardian for the September 19, 2010 flight, her excitement quickly gave way to an incredible realization.

“I hung up the phone and it suddenly hit me. September 19 was the very day my Dad had passed away," she explained. "I couldn't help but think that this trip to Washington D.C. was definitely meant to be,” she said.

Prior to the flight last fall, Zehren talked on the phone with her veteran, Max Vollmann, 84, of West Allis and his family. The trip is all expenses paid for the veterans; guardians pay $500.

On the day of the flight, 200 veterans and their guardians boarded a 4:30 a.m. plane for Washington D.C. The average age for the veterans was 92, and half were in wheelchairs. Each had a guardian to help them throughout the day.

Vollmann and Zehren connected immediately.

“We talked non-stop about everything,” she said.

Vollmann was born in Germany, and moved to the United States when he was two years old. Later, he served 26 months with the U.S. Army during World War II, stationed in Germany.

The group would spend a full day busing around D.C., on deluxe coaches to see memorials such as the National World War II Memorial, the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. At the National World War II Memorial, Zehren left a tribute for her father; a small flag with a laminated photo of him attached.

“Everywhere we went, strangers welcomed the veterans and asked them questions about their service,” Zehren said. “They had a police escort everywhere. It seemed so fitting for these men because they didn’t get this treatment before. It was a class act every step of the way."

“It was a day my dad would have enjoyed.”

The emotional high point came at the end of the day, when the veterans arrived back in Wisconsin at 11:15 p.m.

“We turned the corner and there was a sea of people – loved ones, friends, strangers – just to welcome these men home,” Zehren said.

Some veterans’ faces were streaming with tears of joy.

“For many of them, there were no celebrations when they came home after the war. They went back to work the next day,” she said. “Max said to me, ‘I can’t believe they’re doing this for us. They didn’t do this when we got home from the war,’ and I said, ‘That’s why we’re doing it right this time.’”

Zehren is still in touch with Vollmann.

“He’s touched my heart in a way that we will be forever friends,” she said. “We made a connection that few people can say they have. If you had the opportunity, I would recommend [Stars and Stripes Honor Flights] to anyone. It was life-changing.”

Zehren organizes fundraisers for veterans’ organizations each year at Lake Bluff Elementary, the middle school and Atwater Elementary schools. This year, the schools raised enough to send six veterans on Honor Flights, and give them the hero’s welcome they’ve always deserved.

For more information on Stars and Stripes Honor Flights, visit http://www.starsandstripeshonorflight.org/.

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