Veterans Honor Tour should be commended

Marvin Knuckles, a Korean War veteran and a survivor of the Heartbreak Ridge battle, was among a group of former service members to travel with the Veterans Honor Tour in 2015.

He described the 43-day battle of Heartbreak Ridge that saw more than 3,700 American and French troops killed, near-death experiences, and watching friends die.

Knuckles remarked at the time, “People call the Korean Conflict the forgotten war, but I haven’t forgotten it.”

William “Bill” Jackson, a World War II Army pilot who died in 2011, was part of an earlier trip offered by the Veterans Honor Tour.

Jackson arrived in India in 1944 in time to take part in what was, at the time, the largest and most extended effort in aviation history to supply troops.

The Douglas C-47’s — not built to carry heavy cargo at high altitude — forced pilots to blaze new trails through rather than over the world’s largest and highest system of peaks, the Himalayas.

And current Veterans Honor Tour coordinator Jerry Sneathern was the first Vietnam veteran to make the Veterans Honor Tour trip.

“I want to take the Vietnam veterans because when they came home they didn’t have a welcome home,” Sneathern said recently. “I want to do it to show them they are welcome home. The nation has changed.”

Poplar Bluff is extremely fortunate to be home to such a worthy effort as the Veterans Honor Tour.

This program assumes the cost and makes all of the arrangements for our veterans to visit D.C. and see what original coordinator Rob Callahan always described as their memorials.

“Their stories don’t need to be forgotten. They have great stories to tell of the sacrifices they made personally and we need to hear those stories,” explained Callahan in 2011, after having taken than 300 area veterans to visit the World War II memorial in Washington D.C., Arlington National Cemetery and other memorial sites. “People just don’t realize the personal sacrifices these veterans made to secure our freedoms.”

Perhaps retired Missouri National Guard Brig. Gen. Charles Kruse said it best at another 2011 event for the Veterans Honor Tour, “These folks demonstrated courage to step up and serve their country. All of them are fortunate to be able to return home and you are fortunate to live in the country they saved.”

We would like to offer our grateful thanks to all veterans, but also to volunteers and sponsors of the Veterans Honor Tour effort. - Daily American Republic