WESTFIELD – Oscar Machietto, 89, of Westfield will be one of twenty honored veterans on Honor Flight New England’s father’s day flight to Washington, D.C. this Sunday. Machietto, a life-long resident of Westfield, was a staff sergeant in the army who served 18 months in Italy during World War II. He said that his unit was about to be shipped to Japan in 1945, when the war ended there. He and his wife Mary, also of Westfield, have been married for 66 years.
Honor Flight New England is a non-profit organization formed in 2009, and part of the national Honor Flight Network. Founder Joe Byron of Hookset, NH, said he started the organization after getting to know and connect with seniors as a part of an investigation on crimes against seniors that the retired law enforcement agent was undertaking. Byron said he met a WWII prisoner of war when speaking to seniors in a mall one day, who he said still teared up when he told his story. Byron felt that he needed to do more for these veterans.
Since 2009, Honor Flight New England has flown 37 flights and 1,219 veterans at no cost to the veterans to visit the memorials in Washington, D.C. The trips are funded by private and corporate donations, Byron said. Every veteran must have a guardian accompany him or her, who is asked to pay the $400 fare.
Machietto and his daughter, Karen Regan, will be on Flight #38. They plan to go to Manchester, NH, on Saturday evening, in order to meet up with the other veterans at the VA at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, and then go by motorcade to the Manchester Airport. Byron said the veterans aren’t supposed to know all the details, but accompanying the group to the airport will be flag lines, bagpipers, and 100 veteran motorcycle riders, including one from the Springfield area who plans to leave at 3 a.m. just to participate in the motorcade. Byron said it will be “a magnificent sendoff – the largest one we’ve ever had.”
Once in Washington, the group will visit the WWII Memorial, the Changing of the Guard, the Air Force and Navy memorials, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veteran’s Memorial and the Iwo Jima Statue. Wheelchairs are flown down for all of the veterans. Byron said it’s their option whether to use them, but they are encouraged to do so. The group will have dinner in the city, then return to the airport and fly home.
Machietto said he applied for the trip after seeing a story about it in the American Legion news. He received a letter in March saying that he was selected for the trip. Machietto said he visited Washington five years ago, and is excited to go again.
“I really want to see it again,” he swid. “It’s quite a thing to go there and see all the names on that wall.”
Machietto said he did not know any of the other veterans on the flight until he and his daughter went to an orientation meeting in Manchester, where he met 8 or 9 of them.
“They were nice, nice folks,” he said. “Real characters – lots of stories to tell.”
Information about applications is available on the website honorflightnewengland.org. Priority is given to WWII veterans, who, according to the website, are dying at the rate of approximately 1,000 per day, and to terminally ill veterans from other wars.
Applications are also being taken at this time from Korean War veterans, and next will be Vietnam veterans. But the plan is to keep going, and to eventually include veterans from all the wars.
“We’re going to keep going as long as we possibly can,” Byron said.
He called the flights a “humbling experience,” and added “Every flight someone will say, ‘we did what we had to do. The real heroes didn’t come home’.”
