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The HFC SITREP

Honor Flight Columbus is proud to be flying our 10,000th Veteran to Washington D.C. on October 10, 2024. To commemorate this significant milestone, we will be sharing the inspiring stories of 10 Veterans. Each story we share will represent 1,000 of the 10,000 Veterans we have had the honor of flying. Follow along as we honor, share, and celebrate the heroes of our country.


Each story shared as part of the Reaching 10,000 series is unique. We have had the honor of learning about experiences in different branches and during different conflicts through the eyes of those who lived them. This story is different. It is written in the words of a Veteran’s daughter—someone who greatly cherished his life and service.

Written with Jodie Augustine— “My dad [Don Morris] was always proud of his service in the United States Army. His service was with him every day for the rest of his life, and my life as well. From revelry on a Saturday morning to standing up whenever the American flag passed in front of us, he truly loved his service for our country.


Dad was born December 5, 1932, in South Central Ohio. He grew up helping on the farm and went to high school in Clarksburg. There he played on the basketball team and would later take his best girl, my mom, to that same gym on Saturday nights for square dances. He was also quite a car enthusiast in his younger years. Just before he passed, we looked at picture albums together. There were so many pictures of him in front of a car. He could share memories about every one of those cars.


I can’t remember whether he was drafted or not, but I do remember that he had applied to work for the railroad. He worked a total of one week before the doctor told him he couldn’t work for the railroad because he had a heart murmur. It wasn’t but a month later that he was in basic training. He always laughed about this saying, “I can’t work on the railroad, but I can go fight for our country? That is ok… I loved doing it.”


Initially, dad was assigned to be a paratrooper. However, during his service there were not enough servicemen to attend the training school. As a result, he was assigned as an MP (Military Police). Dad was stationed in the Army in Japan and was called up to the line the day that the treaty was signed ending the Korean War.


He entered the Army January 27th, 1953. He completed basic training at Camp Polk, Louisianna. Eventually he was stationed in Japan, assigned to the 187th Regimental Combat Team where he received the Combat Infantryman Badge and the UN and Korean Service Ribbons during three month’s Korean duty. He was transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division, still stationed in Japan.


My dad met one of his best buddies while he was in the Army. Jim and my dad kept in contact on and off throughout their lives. In 1977, our family took a tour of the United States and during this camping tour, we spent three nights with Jim at his farm in Iowa.

After he was discharged, my dad had two girlfriends—including my mom! I don’t know what happened, but my dad and mom ended up breaking up. Eventually, my parents got back together and were married shortly after. Together they had two children: my brother in 1960 and me in 1962. I still live in the house they built in 1961.


It is my dad’s influence I am sure, that led me to marry a military man. My husband was a Marine and fought in the Vietnam War. Once he returned home, he eventually was impacted by Agent Orange and died of pancreatic cancer in October of 1993. Dad and my husband were very close. My husband made my dad promise that my parents would help me raise our kids. Dad stayed true to that promise.


After my husband passed, I moved into my parent’s house with the kids. My dad built an apartment in the barn on the property. My parents lived there to help with my kids. It was a perfect set up as they no longer needed a big house to care for but were next door if they wanted to visit. I always joked that Dad was my maintenance man. Dad always instilled hard work into all of us, including his grandchildren. He taught my son to detail a car and have it shining so much so that a fly wouldn’t even land on it.


Though he was so helpful, my dad also had a temper. My kids still laugh about the different little temper tantrums he would throw. Something as simple as a shovel left outside in the garden would make him mad. But he was so good to us all. The highlight of his life after the service was his family. He was very close with all his grandkids. He loved them all, although with my brother living in Springfield it was not possible for him to be as close to them.


Dad always had a sense of service and had joined the Ross County Shriner’s club. With the club during the Ross County Fair, he took care of the booth selling ice. He would spend hours calling people and getting them signed up to work. He would be at the fair every day to make sure the shifts were covered. Dadbrought in a lot of money this way and they were able to take two bus trips down to the Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Cincinnati. He was always so proud to give them the check of the proceeds from their ice booth.


Another highlight of his life after his service was his Honor Flight on April 15, 2017 as part of Mission 80. I was honored to get to be on the same flight and witness his experience with the organization I have grown to love so much over the years. After his flight, he told everyone and anyone that had been in the service to go on their Honor Flight. He said it was one of the best days of his life.


For his Welcome Home celebration, my kids surprised him at the airport where we could all experience it together. If he were here today, he would still talk about his trip. In fact, just a couple of days before he died, he was telling someone in the rehab center that they needed to go on their Honor Flight. He made me bring them an application.

He shared with so many Veterans how well Honor Flight Columbus took care of every detail during the flight day. He told them ‘You won’t want for anything!’ He was just so impressed with the organization. Once his health deteriorated, I would arrange for someone to spend the day with him while I was away volunteering with Honor Flights. One day when I went to leave, he teared up. I asked him, ‘do you want me to cancel my trip?’ He told me no. He said, ‘I don’t like it when you are gone, but I love what you are doing. Just keep making them feel as loved as you made me feel. I hope you do it forever.’ So, every trip I go on, I have to say a little something to my dad. He is why I started volunteering for this organization, and he is why I still volunteer. I want to make every Veteran know how much we appreciate their service to our country, just as my dad felt on his Honor Flight.”

 

Honor Flight Columbus is proud to be flying our 10,000th Veteran to Washington D.C. on October 10, 2024. To commemorate this significant milestone, we will be sharing the inspiring stories of 10 Veterans. Each story we share will represent 1,000 of the 10,000 Veterans we have had the honor of flying. Follow along as we honor, share, and celebrate the heroes of our country.


AvaMaria "Gunny" Knight was born on September 6, 1958. From a young age, she thrived on challenges. By 18, after a brief stint in college and a job in a local shop, she found life too ordinary and began exploring new possibilities. Inspired by her favorite cousin, a Vietnam veteran, she decided to enlist in the military. While many of her friends were joining the Army, Knight had been captivated by John Wayne’s movie, The Sands of Iwo Jima, leading her to choose the Marine Corps.


On a Friday in April of 1978, Knight enlisted. The Marine Corp told her that she needed to gain weight. Undeterred, she spent the weekend eating eggs, peanut butter, bananas, and cheese to meet the requirement. When she returned on Monday just a pound short of the required weight, she was instructed to drink a lot of water and “don’t go to the bathroom until you get to Parris Island.”


Knight left that Monday and told no one. Soon after there was a missing person’s bulletin put out on her behalf. The Marines forced her to call home to let her family know she was safe. Knight recalled her brother finding humor in the situation as she was required to address him as “sir” during the call. For Knight, enlisting was about embracing new challenges and forging a different path in life—one that meant leaving the old ways behind.


When she arrived at Boot Camp, Knight remembers having quite a smart mouth. She took a bus there and as soon as it stopped, drill instructors were yelling orders at the new recruits. Knight stayed seated, looking out the window at them. When a drill instructor asked if she was enjoying herself, she boldly replied, “I’m just waiting for you all to finish what you’re doing out there.” Immediately, she was thrown off the bus and realized, “this was real.” She thought to herself, “Dorothy, you aren’t in Kansas anymore.”



After Boot Camp, her training resumed at Parris Island. She attended BPA (Basic Personnel Admin) School. Her first duty station was in Hawaii. She remembers that she “cried like a baby” and did not want to go. The young Knight felt it was too far away from family. In retelling this part of her military service, Knight pointed out the irony of having enlisted in the first place for challenges and a new life, but here she was afraid to be so far from home. Knight called her mother, and she told Knight to go to Hawaii and “do something no one else had done” in their family.





To this day, Knight maintains connections with some of the people she served beside. In fact, her best friend is one of the people she served with in Okinawa. Reflecting on her experiences, she noted that as a female Marine, she always had to prove herself. “I couldn’t just do my job; I had to excel beyond the next person.” Though it was extremely tough at times, she never once considered quitting. “I was 8 months pregnant on a run,” Knight shared about the physically exhaustive training required by the Marine Corps. It was then on that run, that Knight went into labor.


The fact of military life for Knight and many other women is that their male counterparts were not pushed the same way. Knight said once she was in longer and was put into the position to push other women, she did. Now she looks back and sees that perhaps there were moments she could have been softer. However, she wanted the women to succeed and show their strength just as she had been encouraged to do when she first enlisted.  

Knight served for 20 years before she retired. Upon reflecting, she wishes she had been able to stay longer but had to make the choice for her family. In 2011 she began working with young Marines to teach them the discipline and leadership which so greatly impacted her.


At her retirement ceremony, her commanding General shared in his speech that “there are people that you are ready for them to go. Then there are people you know you are going to miss.” When he called her name, she remembers the crack in his voice which still touches her to this day. The moment of her retirement at Camp Lejeune hurt her deeply. She said leaving was the hardest thing she ever had to do. After her military service she worked for the Department of Defense but is now fully retired and lives in Hilliard, Ohio.


April 18, 2024, just shy of the 46th anniversary of her enlistment, Knight took her Honor Flight as part of Mission 130. While she had been stationed near the nation’s capital during her time in the military, she said that seeing the memorials with a group of Veterans was unlike anything she had ever done. She talked about seeing the faces of other Veterans as they encountered their memorials as having a huge impact on her. One of the Veterans on her mission was crying when he received the Welcome Home celebration. Knight said the gentleman told her that “if he had received that welcome home when he returned, everything would have been ok.”



This of course, put Knight in mind of her favorite cousin—the same cousin whose influence pushed her to enlist in the first place. She said she never understood why upon his return from Vietnam, the country greeted him with name calling and spitting. The way he was treated by the country he served contributed to his death. Her cousin is memorialized as part of the “In Memory” plaque near the Vietnam Wall which reads:


“In memory of the men and women who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. We honor and remember their sacrifice.”


For Knight, the most impactful moment during her Honor Flight occurred at the Vietnam Wall. She assisted a Veteran in finding a name on the wall and said that when he shared the story behind the name and his connection to it, he was so moved by emotion that it moved all of those around him. Knight encourages all servicemen and women to “do whatever they can to get on that Honor Flight.” In seeing all of the other Veterans, Knight was reminded of the vibrancy of the bases she was stationed, a life she fondly remembers.


Knight would tell any 18 year old looking to join the military that “it is probably the best decision you will ever make.” She learned a trade and skill, received two bachelor’s degrees, traveled to places she never would have been able to see, and became the person she is today because of the Marine Corps. She simply describes her experience as “amazing.”

Honor Flight Columbus is proud to be flying our 10,000th Veteran to Washington D.C. on October 10, 2024. To commemorate this significant milestone, we will be sharing the inspiring stories of 10 Veterans. Each story we share will represent 1,000 of the 10,000 Veterans we have had the honor of flying. This particular profile shares the story of a couple who served in the Marines and met during their service. Follow along as we honor, share, and celebrate the heroes of our country.


James (Jimmy) Hilles still remembers the very first time he saw a Marine wearing their Dress Blues. This impactful moment, while collecting donations for Toys for Tots, stuck with Hilles and he decided on the spot, “I gotta have one of those!” He officially enlisted in the USMC Reserves in 1968 while he was still in high school. By August of that year, he entered active duty and was stationed in San Diego where he referred to himself as a “Hollywood Marine.”

Originally, it was recommended to Hilles that his military occupational specialty (MOS) be cook, though he was assigned to be a truck driver in the motor pool. He recalled Gas Chamber training where they were exposed to controlled amounts of tear gas to teach them how to survive chemical attacks using their equipment. His fellow trainees would give each other a hard time because they were not permitted to leave the exercise until they perfected the necessary skills.


After basic training, Hilles was sent to Da Nang, Vietnam at just 18 years old. His brother, also in the service, was sent out of the war zone as Hilles entered it. Eventually, his commanding officer ordered him to serve as an MP (military police) and he was sent to Marine Corps Base Camp LeJune to train. This move would forever change his life; here he met his wife Christine (Chris).


Chris grew up in Northern Illinois and was also inspired at a young age to join the Marines. She enlisted in high school as she saw it as her “only choice.” Though her brother also served in the Marines, her father was reluctant to sign for her enlistment. However, he knew it was what Chris wanted and signed for her. She left for boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina just two weeks after her graduation. Like her husband, Chris recalled Gas Chamber training as the most difficult part of basic training.


She was assigned to MCAS Cherry Point as administrative support for the Military Police. During her service, she not only was trained in administrative support, but she learned to drive a ¾ Ton vehicle before she even had a civilian driver’s license.  While her company’s Gunny did not like her, she fondly remembers the other people with whom she served.


When she met Jimmy Hilles, she was a KP (kitchen police) in the Mess Hall. One of her friends was with Jimmy and introduced the two of them. Jimmy shared the memory of this meeting saying, “I knew that day. I told my friend I am going to marry that girl. And I did.” Jimmy and Chris were married at the chapel on base at Camp Lejeune. Chris’ family could not attend the wedding and instead, the Colonel in charge of MPs on the base gave her away and paid for their rehearsal dinner. Chris remarked, “Marine Corps family [is] just like that.”

After their service, the Hilles settled in Columbus. Chris said because she didn’t get to “horse around” after high school like other young people, she did that upon their return. Chris worked at JC Penney in Westland and then Eastland. Jimmy worked at The Ohio State University until he retired. Both Jimmy and Chris left the service with the rank of Sergeant E5. Chris said that “less than 2% were female and I earned my rank.” Their lives today stay busy with three cats and three dogs along with Jimmy’s service on the Knights of Columbus Council.


Together, the Hilles took their Honor Flight with Honor Flight Columbus on May 5, 2023, on Mission 121.  When they were asked what advice they had for people today from their experiences, they both gave similar responses. Jimmy said, “Be proud of our country and of the military, even if you didn’t serve. Those people keep you free.” Chris said, “Everybody needs to do something important and the military matters.”

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