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Honor Flight Bluegrass Chapter will pay special tribute to WWII Veteran Lt. Howard Enoch Jr., on their tribute flight planned for this Wednesday.
The remains of this downed WWII aviator from Marion, Ky., were recently repatriated after 63+ years.
The brief tribute of respect by the Bluegrass Chapter of Honor Flight, will take place Sept. 10, at the Kentucky pillar of the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Six decades later, his son, Howard Enoch III, is getting to know his father while planning a funeral and memorial service for a man he never met. Howard will join the Bluegrass Chapter of Honor Flight at the WWII Memorial to pay tribute to his father.
"For 63 years, I had no reason to believe I would ever find out what happened to my father," Enoch said. "It's been remarkable."
The Department of Defense said last month that it had identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Howard Clifton Enoch Jr. of Marion.
His burial is scheduled for Sept. 22, at Arlington National Cemetery and a memorial service is being planned for Kentucky.
Lt. Enoch was a 20-year-old pilot of a P-51D Mustang, a long-range single-seat fighter aircraft, that was shot down near the village of Doberschutz, Germany, on March 19, 1945. Lt. Enoch's remains were not immediately recovered and the crash site fell behind Soviet lines when the war ended in May 1945.
His son, Howard Enoch III, grew up in Marion, about 66 miles east of Metropolis, Ill. His mother remarried and he was eventually told about his father's disappearance.
"He had never been there my entire life," Enoch said. "I virtually had no hope of ever knowing what happened to my dad."
Enoch, 63, lives in Framingham, Mass. He directs the E. Paul Robsham Jr. Theater Arts Center.
The Honor Flight Bluegrass Chapter will arrive at the WWII Memorial at approximately 1:30 p.m. and depart at 3 p.m.
The trip will feature the above ceremony and the opportunity for 38 local WWII veterans from the Bluegrass region to witness and reflect at the WWII Memorial.
This is the fourth mission of the Honor Flight Bluegrass Chapter this year, with the final 2008 seasonal flight planned for Oct. 8. At season’s end, the chapter will have provided this unique travel opportunity and gift to approximately 200 of our local WWII veterans.
Flights will resume in the spring 2009.
Additional information on the Honor Flight Program can be obtained by contacting Brian Duffy at (502) 550-3093 or on the Web, click here.
