Special Report

A flight for the greatest generation

Posted: Jun 20, 2012 9:15 AM by Drew Trafton - Q2 News
Updated: Jun 20, 2012 9:15 AM

BILLINGS - When Montana's young men and women began fighting in World War II, the commander and chief of the United States armed forces was the only man many of them could clearly remember as being president.

And despite the fact that many of those who served never came home, many of Montana's World War II veterans who took the inaugural Big Sky Honor Flight remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt as "their president."

"He was a good man," said Joliet Air Force veteran Ernest DeVries. "He saved the country."

DeVries served 22 missions as a nose gunner on a B-24 Bomber.

DeVries said he never questioned decisions made during the war, because he held great trust in FDR.

"I was just a kid, how would I know," said DeVries. "He's the president-he's supposed to know."

But DeVries and fellow Air Force veterans Donald Nafus and Bill Smith, also say their loyalty was given because it was the right thing to do as servicemen.

Even on the days when their planes did not come home.

"We didn't have time to grieve," said Donald Nafus. "The next morning we had to have a new airplane and we had to concentrate on getting familiar with that airplane for the next crew."

And it's because of that serve first mentality, that the generation is commonly referred to as the greatest.

Click on the video to watch as the Big Sky Honor Flight veterans visit the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C..

If you would like to help send more of Montana's WWII veterans to Washington, D.C., click here.