Washington Co., WI – There will be 10 veterans from Washington County participating in Saturday’s Stars and Stripes Honor Flight to Washington D.C.
One of the oldest vets on the flight will be 95-year-old WWII veteran Dave Lowe from the Town of Erin.
Lowe was drafted was 19 years old when he entered service Feb. 1, 1943 and served until Feb. 23, 1946.
“I went to Biloxi, Mississippi for basic training and then to Tishomingo, Oklahoma to learn how to take care of airplanes,” said Lowe.
Army training had Lowe shipped to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, Kelly Field in Texas and to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, to Seattle and then onto Guam in November 1944.
“It took 32 days to get from Seattle to Guam,” he said about traveling by merchant ship.
Lowe worked as a clerk typist and then onto the warehouse and finally he worked as a corporal as an orderly. “I swept the day room, took care of letters and I was in charge of the beer supply,” he said. “Everybody got two cans of beer a week and we had cases of it back where I got the mail. When somebody would ask for an extra can or two for their friends, I couldn’t give them a can but I could give them a case.
“I had a lot of friends,” Lowe said.
Lowe remembered when the USO Show with Bob Hope came to Guam to entertain the troops.
Lowe’s son James Lowe from Madison will be going with his dad as his guardian on the flight.
Dave Lowe said he is looking forward to seeing the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. His friend Rocky Rococo sent him a post card from Hawaii in 1944 and then never made it home because he was involved in an accident with a military vehicle.
Other veterans from Washington County participating in Saturday’s Honor Flight include:
Colgate: Wayne Fischer, Vietnam War Army
Germantown: Greg Eggum, Vietnam War Army
Hartford: Brad Wing, Vietnam War Navy
Town of Erin: Dave Lowe, WWII Army Air Corps
Kewaskum: Thomas Kohn, Vietnam War Marines
West Bend: Jerry Goratowski, Vietnam War Navy, John “Pete” Pedersen, Vietnam War Army, James Meinberg, Vietnam War Air Force pilot, James Pogantsch, Vietnam War Army , William Crowley, Vietnam War Army.
