WASHINGTON — Some of them fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Others peered out of foxholes in Saipan or landed on the shores of Okinawa to see the approaching enemy.

Last weekend, 18 Capital Region veterans of World War II traveled to Washington for a walk around the memorial that honors their service more than 60 years ago.

The 17 men and one woman were guests of the first Patriot Flight, a program organized by one of their own, William Peak, and a committee headquartered at the Troy Senior Center.

Peak said he got the idea of raising money to fund trips for World War II vets to the memorial after reading about Honor Flights Network, a national organization based in Ohio.

The day was a full one for the local octogenarians, beginning with a 7 a.m. bus ride from Troy to Albany International Airport. The bus had an escort — some 50 younger veterans on motorcycles — and was greeted at the airport with applause from staff and visitors.

They got the same heroes’ welcome home when their plane returned home at 10:30 p.m.

A nation’s thanks

Between flights, the travelers received numerous well wishes and expressions of thanks for their service.

When they arrived at Baltimore Washington International Airport, a crowd was waiting to cheer their arrival. Volunteers from the national organization had arrived before the plane landed and told travelers in the airport about the visitors from New York who were coming to see “their memorial.”

Irving Gettleman, 85, said he felt he was receiving the parade he didn’t get when he returned home in 1946. Several of the vets echoed that view, explaining that discharge paperwork took many months to complete.

“By the time we returned home, things were getting back to normal,” William Hart, 82, said.

After an hour’s bus trip, the group arrived in Washington, where retired U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a fellow World War II veteran, was among the well-wishers.

Dole, 84, was waiting for the group near the memorial, and the former senator welcomed photographs and questions, standing in the sun despite temperatures in the 80s until every vet had a chance to speak to him.

Gettleman said the trip to Washington meant the world to him. He strolled around the memorial, reading carvings of famous speeches made by presidents, generals and admirals of the war.

Gettleman kept his emotions in check most of the day but teared up when he was approached by a teenager who asked if he was a veteran and then shook his hand and said, “Thank you for what you did for our country.”

“Wow,” Gettleman said. “I didn’t expect that.”

At the end of the day, each of the vets said they had broken down at one point or another as they were overcome with emotion and pride at the memorial.

Organizer William Peak, 83, said the day was a highlight of his life.

“It’s a dream come true to be here with these people,” Peak said as he waited for the flight back to Albany. “I can’t describe all I’ve felt today.”

Several of the local men said anticipation of the trip brought back memories of the war years they had suppressed over the past six decades.

Quizzed about their memories as they rode on the bus or sat on a bench at the memorial, they spoke of the sights, sounds and even smells of their war experiences as young sailors and soldiers.

memories of war

Donald Trudeau was 19 when he joined the National Guard in 1941.

“I was training in Alabama on Dec. 7, 1941, and I didn’t even know where Pearl Harbor was,” he said. Within months, he was on a ship taking him to ports in Hawaii and other locations in the Pacific he hadn’t previously known existed.

“When I joined, I weighed 97 pounds. The Depression had something to do with how skinny I was,” he said, adding that he was 5 feet 6 inches tall. “The doctor didn’t want to pass me, but a sergeant had other ideas.”

In 1944, Trudeau was part of the infantry that defeated a division of the Imperial Japanese Army on Saipan. During the three-week-long battle, 2,949 Americans were killed and 10,364 wounded.

“I got hit with machine gun fire,” Trudeau said. “Fortunately, it hit my canteen, which had a metal cup inside. The impact spun the canteen and the belt it was on around my belly, and I got a heck of a burn.”

He said being on an island with only salt water has had a lifelong impact on him.

“We received small rations of fresh water that were brought in, and we learned to get by,” Trudeau said. “Even today, I don’t drink much, no matter how hot it is.”

Theodore DeBonis had his war experience in Europe in an armored division with General George Patton’s Third Army as it covered 600 miles across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

“We liberated the Mauthusen concentration camp in Austria, which had a lot of American, Italian and Polish soldiers,” DeBonis, now 81, said. “Those guys were just skin and bones. They were half alive and half dead. But when they saw us, they were jubilant, and some of them climbed the main gate to pull down the swastika that was there.”

He said he has never smelled anything in his long life that matched the stench of the camp.

Anthony “Andy” Maier joined the Army in 1943 when he was 19 years old.

“All my friends were going and I knew I would be drafted in the next round, so I didn’t wait,” he said.

After boot camp, he was sent to England, then France, and in December of 1944, he was one of 600,000 American troops fighting the Battle of the Bulge, the last major Nazi offensive against the Allies.

Also on that battlefield was John Cole, who was 22.

“I was captured at the Battle of the Bulge,” Cole, now 85, said. “At 2 or 3 in the morning, my captors started arguing, and I took the opportunity to drop to my hands and knees and crawl away. It was pitch dark, so they couldn’t find me. A little while later, I came on a unit of Russians and ended up spending a couple of days with them drinking vodka.”

He said he didn’t understand a word his new friends were saying and he didn’t really care.

“In the end, an American unit came by and I got back to my own unit,” Cole said.

Back in the Pacific, Arthur Herald was with the Navy Air Corps working with aviation ordinance.

“I was a bomb jockey,” Herald, 84, said. “I enlisted when I was 19, and I handled all kinds of firepower between 1942 and ’45.”

He said many of the ships he served on were searching for enemy submarines.

Thomas Sunkes, 82, was also in the Navy Air Corps. He worked as a gunner and radio operator based in England.

“I would be a radioman half the flight and a gunner the other half,” he said. “We had one mission where a German fighter was trying to shoot us down, and although we got hit, we made it back to our base.”

He said on another exciting mission, his plane was involved in sinking a German submarine.

“We got in some hits, but an English Corvette got some, too, and they got the credit for the sinking,” he said, not hiding his disappointment.

family in uniform

William Kelly was 16 when he enlisted in the Navy, but he couldn’t be sworn in until his 17th birthday.

“My parents signed the papers, and I was sworn in on March 18, 1944,” he said. “I had seven brothers, and all but one were in the services. Two of my brothers survived [the Japanese attack on] Pearl Harbor.”

Kelly was also sent to serve on ships in the Pacific.

Many of the veterans had siblings in the armed services at the same time they served during World War II.

Helen Brennan, 87, was a Coast Guard recruiter during the war, and she traveled throughout the United States with her sister and fellow recruiter Juliana.

“My brother Jack was in the Coast Guard and was part of the landing in Normandy, and my brother Ned was a pharmacist mate in the Navy in Europe,” she said.

Brennan married a Navy man, William Brennan, in 1944.

“He was a radio man on a sub chaser,” she said. “He would have loved this trip to Washington. I’m sure he’s looking down on us and smiling.”

William Brennan died in 1995.

She said the visit to Washington was her first since she was discharged from the Coast Guard in 1946.

“This sure beats a military funeral,” she remarked after the group was greeted with applause and a send-off ceremony at Albany International. “My sister had a military funeral, but I like this recognition a lot better.”

Brennan and her sister traveled with the military band during some of their recruiting missions. Some of the drafted musicians had performed previously with Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, the famous big band leaders of the day.

“I remember a time in Fargo, North Dakota — it was the coldest day of my life. The band leader told me I had to play the maracas,” she said. “I said I didn’t have any musical talent, but he insisted, and when we were done, he yelled at me for throwing the band off its timing.”

future flights

Sue Aluck, director of the Troy Senior Center, said some of the vets came into the center last week talking about the trip.

“I swear it took 20 years off their ages. There’s a new skip in their steps,” she said.

The second Patriot Flight is already filled and will be made later this month. A third flight is planned for September.

“We have 38 vets and 14 guardians signed up for May and 50 applications in the file for future trips,” Aluck said.

The vets pay nothing for the trip, and guardians contribute about $250 for their airfare, meals and other expenses.

Anyone interested in making a donation to the local effort should make checks payable to Patriot Flight ’08 and send them to Pioneer Savings Bank, 712 Hoosick St., Troy, NY 12180.

Peak said applications are being accepted at the senior center from veterans and volunteers willing to act as guardians for further flights. The address is 19 Third St., Troy.