Veterans, assemble! ‘Wings Over Wendy’ team signs off Zoom and meets in person

Veterans of all ages, all branches, any town are welcome to join the Wings Over Wendy's meetings in-person and online

By DENNIS MCCARTHY

PUBLISHED: July 2, 2021 at 3:10 p.m. | UPDATED: July 2, 2021 at 3:14 p.m.

 

Wings Over Wendy’s veterans group goodbye photo at the Wendy’s restaurant on Platt Avenue in West Hills. The group then met in a Wendy’s in Woodland Hills before they outgrew that location. They still meet on Mondays, on Zoom and in-person, at a location on Shoup Avenue in West Hills. (Courtesy)

 

You can’t replace a handshake and a hug. If we learned anything about independence this past year, we learned that.

A little over a month ago, on Memorial Day, 60 older veterans who self quarantined in their Valley homes and apartments for over a year finally got to see each other in the flesh again.

It was like old home week, said Ed Reynolds, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who had set up weekly Zoom meetings for some of them to stay in touch. Ed’s a tech savvy guy, but trying to teach the typewriter generation how to Zoom on a computer they can barely operate was a challenge, but most of them learned.

Now, they were back in the same room, shaking hands, hugging and back slapping each other – carrying on like it was one, big, family reunion, which it was.

“So many characters with so many stories to tell,” is the way Ed put it.

Many of the vets had been meeting for more than 15 years every Monday morning at a Wendy’s in West Hills for a cup of coffee and a few hours of camaraderie.

They remember the group’s co-founder Fred “Crash” Blechman, a Navy Corsair pilot, who earned his nickname for crashing four of our fighter planes while never shooting down one on the other side.

They remember Ed “Bomber” Koscinski, who walked in one day and asked if he could join. When Poland was captured, he was forced to become a German MIG pilot. He spent the war trying to shoot these guys down. Didn’t matter, he was a veteran. C’mon in.

“I would sit out in my car in the parking lot watching the guys arrive,” the late Art Sherman, a B-24 Bombardier in World War II and former leader of the group, told me. “They’d get their walkers out of the trunk and slowly make their way across the parking lot. You could tell they were in pain.

“By the time they got to the door, though, they were already smiling. They knew what was waiting inside for them.”

Camaraderie, and the thing they needed most growing old, laughter. Many of these vets were widowers with sons and daughters who begged their lonely fathers to get out of the house and join the group. Don’t give up.

Others had wives who couldn’t stand to see their once vibrant husbands just sit in front of a TV set from morning to night. They twisted their arms to go to one of the meetings, just to see how they’d like it. They loved it. So did their wives. They dropped their husbands off and went shopping for a few hours.

From half a dozen World War II flyboys meeting for the first time over lunch in 2002, the group had grown to more than 100, encompassing every branch of service, and the spouses and children of its members, if they wanted to come to the meetings.

 

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Ed Reynolds File photo

It’s a wonderful story, but the truth is, they’re only scratching the surface. There are thousands more older veterans sitting in their homes in the Valley today fighting the same enemy and losing – giving in to the loneliness and depression.

If you have a retired neighbor living alone or know someone who was in the service, and might be battling their own demons, let them know 

there’s a big, family reunion of veterans meeting every Monday morning and they’re welcome to join in.

They’ll be plenty of handshakes and hugs, and don’t worry about feeling out of place, because you won’t be. That special bond veterans have of taking care of each other has no expiration date on it.

On Monday, a 45-minute film on the history of the Fourth of July will be shown. There’s a meet and greet from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. then the meeting and film begins.

The group outgrew its space at Wendy’s, and now meets in a former synagogue located on the El Camino High north campus, 7401 Shoup Ave. in West Hills. Parking is available in the school lot on Variel Avenue.

For more information, give Ed Reynolds a call at 818-884-4013.

Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Sunday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.

Wings over Wendy’s takes flight from West Hills - February 2018

Dennis McCarthy: Wings over Wendy’s takes flight from West Hills. 

But these WWII vets have a place to land

Wings over Wendy’s group goodbye photo. (Courtesy)

By DENNIS MCCARTHY |

February 15, 2018 at 6:21 pm

“As soon as we put the guns down, we were able to talk as men.” – Mike “Bomber” Karatsonyi, who flew with the German Luftwaffe in World War II.

It was moving day Monday for “Wings Over Wendy’s,” that raucous, lovable group of old military flyboys and aviation veterans who have been meeting for coffee and camaraderie every Monday morning for the last 16 years at the Wendy’s on Platt Avenue in West Hills.

Ron Ross, owner of the restaurant, lost his lease to an El Pollo Loco, which was willing to pay double the $10,000-a-month rent Ross was paying for the location.

It seems there’s a shortage of restaurants with drive-thru’s in the Valley, so companies looking for potential sites check when leases are coming up for renewal, and swoop in offering a lot more money, he said.

Ross owns another Wendy’s at 22611Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, and that’s where the group will meet from now on because, well, “Wings Over El Pollo Loco” doesn’t quite get it.

It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in the city room on a slow Monday morning in 2002 praying for a good column to drop in my lap when a guy named Fred “Crash” Blechman called and invited me to join him and a few of his World War II buddies at Wendy’s for the 99-cent senior lunch special — a cheeseburger, fries, and drink of your choice.

Now how can you pass up an opportunity like that? You can’t. Turns out the guys were starting a club, and they wanted my help getting the word out.

Crash, I came to find out, earned his dubious nickname for crashing five Navy fighter planes during his four years of military service. He was great on take-offs, but his landings were a little shaky.

Sitting with Crash was Mickey Epstein, a B-24 Liberator flight engineer, Ed Figueroa, a B-26 gunner, Ernie Bankey, an “ace” pilot who shot down 11 enemy planes, and Mike “Bomber” Karatsonyi, who fortunately wasn’t one of them.

Bomber flew a Messerschmitt Me-109 in the war with the Luftwaffe. After the Germans occupied Hungary, Mike was told either fly with us or go to a concentration camp.

And now here he was, 60-plus years later, having a cheeseburger, and catching up on old times with guys who wanted to shoot him out of the sky.

“No hard feelings?” I asked the guys. None, they said.

“As soon as we put the guns down, we were able to talk as men,” Bomber said. “Pilots are a special breed.”

He said he knew the war was almost over the day he took off with 40 other Luftwaffe pilots, and they were met by 1,200 American planes.

“Mike defended his country and did what he had to do. We all respected that,” said Lee Auger, who received his 16-year pin Monday as the longest member of “Wings Over Wendy’s” still living.

The column in 2002 found its way into the homes of hundreds of former aviation veterans in LA County. The next week 20 more guys showed up for lunch, then 40 more. The group grew so large there was no room for regular customers, so Ross had to move the luncheon meetings to morning breakfast, which wasn’t easy because he wasn’t open for breakfast.

But for his Wings guys, he staffed and opened his restaurant two hours early. He didn’t have to. He wasn’t making a dime on them. Coffee was free.

But Ross knew from their wives and children how important it was for these old warriors to get out of their homes for a few hours every week and hang out together swapping old war stories.

“It’s an honor to have them in my restaurant,” Ross has said many times.

Today, “Wings Over Wendy’s” has more than 300 members, of which about 100 show up for coffee and camaraderie every Monday morning. They also added a Tuesday morning meeting at the Tarzana Community and Cultural Center, 19130 Ventura Blvd from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.

All military veterans, not just aviators, are now invited to join, said the group’s president Ed Reynolds, who can be reached at (818) 884-4013 for more information.

“These meetings have become lifelines to many of the guys, especially the ones who have lost their wives and were just sitting at home vegetating,” said Art Sherman, a B-24 bombardier and intelligence officer in World War II.

“Our members come from all over Los Angeles County to finally talk about the war experiences they could never talk to their families about. It’s been a lifesaver for them, including me.”

Yeah, I got lucky that day Crash called. That 99-cent senior special turned out to be the best lunch I ever had.

Air Refueling Talk - April 2017

April 24, 2017

Ed Reynolds

On April 24^th Ed Reynolds spoke to the gathering about military air refueling.  Describing the first Army air refueling mission in 1929 titled the “Question Mark?” which flew for seven days between San Diego and Los Angeles and then profiled the “tanker” aircraft the military has used up to the new KC-46.

Ed also described the various methods used since 1929 to transfer fuel between aircraft and those in use today.  He has flown 2,000 hours in both the KC-97 and KC-135 and he described the air refueling operations in use by the military to safely rendezvous the tankers and receivers and conduct the transfer of fuel. 

Reported by Ed Reynolds

Conversation with Heroes

Our “Conversations with Heroes” program was active during the month.  Ed Reynolds was interviewed by a group of students from Cleveland HS, April 6th; spoke at a class at El Camino Real Charter High School on April 7^th and the Rotary Club of Greater Van Nuys on April 27^th.

Post Election 2016

November 9, 2016 - Post Election

November is always a busy month for veterans. In 2016 I attended six events prior to Veterans Day. One of the most memorable was North Valley Military Institute on November 9th. It was the morning after Donald Trump had beaten Hillary Clinton in the United States Presidential Election. I was invited to appear in the viewing stands to watch the students pass in review. The featured speaker on that occasion was Congressman Adam Schiff. The guests were lined up by service at the edge of the parade grounds and were escorted across the grounds to the viewing stands. The USAF as the youngest service was last and as I stood awaiting my escort I was next to the Congressman. I attempted to engage him in conversation about the upset election.  He appeared to be shell shocked and was not complimentary of the newly elected president. His assistant took a picture of the scene.

Meeting Leadership passed from Art Sherman to Ed Reynolds - August 1, 2016

Meeting Leadership

Sadly, health problems caught up with Art Sherman during the year and he turned over the meeting podium to Ed Reynolds in June.  Art was awarded the title of “Leader Emeritus” in August and Howard Swerdlick was made an Honorary Private for outstanding support and service to Wings Over Wendy’s.

Ed Reynolds Accepts Wings Over Wendy's California Legislature Assembly Resolution

Wings Over Wendy’s Awarded California Legislature Assembly Resolution

On behalf of the organization, Ed Reynolds accepted Resolution No. 1597 from California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and 45^th Assembly District Assemblymember Matthew Dababneh on April 3, 2016.  WOW was also given a California State flag at the Town Hall meeting

Visiting Travel Warnings List Countries - Letter to International Travel News - October 2015

Jeff Carrier of Naples, Florida, had the following request for subscribers (Jan. ’15, pg. 68): “I would like input from readers who have traveled recently to any of the nearly 40 countries that are pretty much always on the US State Department’s ‘Travel Warnings’ list, which appears monthly in ITN. How did they do it and what were their experiences?” A number of responses were printed in last month’s issue. The remainder appear below.

Note that, due to the unstable nature of countries on the warnings list and recent changes to the list, itself, certain countries mentioned below may be more dangerous or less dangerous than when these travelers visited them. For up-to-date information, visithttp://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/alertswarnings.html. For the current Travel Warnings list, see page 62 in this issue.

Some countries that do not make the Travel Warnings list still earn precautionary notes from the State Department. Visit http://travel.state.gov, click on “Country Information,” type a country’s name in the search bar and, on the page that comes up, click on “Safety and Security.”

______________________________________________________________________

To finish my quest to visit every UN member state, which I finally did in 2014, I had to visit all of the countries on the Travel Warnings list. Most of my traveling to those countries took place in the last six years, with the majority of the trips taking place in 2013.

Jeff Carrier asked travelers to any of these countries how they did it and what their experiences were. Here are my answers.

First, I contacted tour operators who advertised in ITN who I had either traveled with in the past or who had been highly recommended by fellow travelers. I provided them with the list of countries I still needed to visit and obtained their proposed itineraries.

Second, I asked each about their experiences with local agents in the countries I wanted to visit.

Third, I selected the tour operator who had the longest history with a local agent, that is, the most trips scheduled between them. This step removed several candidates who didn’t have close relationships with agents in the countries I wanted to visit.

 My theory is that a tour operator and a local agent each will not be willing to risk ruining their reputation or even their relationship if they, together, aren’t sure they can arrange a safe visit for a traveler. I want the feeling that the operator and their local agent are confident they are going to keep me safe.

• I visited many of the countries on the list with groups. For example, in 2009 I traveled with Advantage Travel & Tours (Poway, CA; 800/882-2098) to IRAQ (Baghdad and the area of ancient Babylon and into Kurdistan), Jordan [not on the Travel Warnings list], SYRIA and LEBANON. It was a fantastic experience with great local guides.

• Several of the “solo” visits that I made to countries were arranged by Klaus Billep of Universal Travel System (Santa Monica, CA; 310/393-0261, www.uts-travel.com). In several of the African countries he arranged to have me visit in 2013, I was escorted by Herb Gobbles, a German who is well known by the locals. Klaus monitored our trip and adjusted our schedule when fighting broke out in MALI.

UTS arranged solo trips to Eritrea, Central African Republic, Libya, Djibouti, Somalia, Chad, Sinai [in Egypt, not on the warning list] and other “safer” destinations. The local guides were fantastic, guiding me away from trouble spots and arranging private tours of sites like Leptis Magna and Sabratha (both in Libya) and keeping me safe when fighting broke out in Tripoli my last night in the country.

The local agents in these countries also had me stay in nondescript hotels where there weren’t many Westerners, and I rode in unmarked vehicles with dark windows.

Later in 2013 I started a tour with a UTS group but deviated to visit YEMEN. My travel to Yemen’s Socotra Island was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The local guide and driver were great.

My big surprise was that the only other tourists I met in Socotra were two young ladies from Washington, DC, who told me the island was a “dark secret” for female travelers who worked for US agencies because it was (then) considered very safe and an interesting place to visit.

For the record, I think the State Department’s Travel Warnings are aimed at backpackers who like to hitchhike around countries without having made reservations in advance. There are many people who like to travel that way. At 80 years old, I am not one of them.

I was married in Canada and worked six years for a Canadian company, so, to help ensure my safety in several of these countries, I wore a Canadian flag pin and in public talked about my life in Canada rather than stories about the US.

The difficult part of traveling to these places was obtaining visas. It took me 10 years before I was able to visit Libya, and then it was only on a work visa. Eritrea sat on my 2012 request before granting me a visa in 2013. In each case, it was the local agent’s influence that helped get my visa granted.

My recommendation is to visit one of these countries if the trip is arranged by a tour operator like Advantage Travel & Tours or Universal Travel System. If the operator doesn’t think it’s safe to travel to a particular place, they won’t arrange the trip. 

And if their local agent feels he or she can arrange a safe visit, go for it. You will experience outstanding adventure with privately guided tours of fabulous sites. 

You also will get more personal interaction with the local people. The result will be a better understanding of the root cause of the trouble that led a country to be put on the US State Department’s Travel Warnings list. 

In both Eritrea and Libya, for example, the local guide invited me to his home after the paid-for tour was finished and talked at great length about the cause of the trouble in his country, and in each case it was somewhat different than what had been reported in the media.

You’ll also learn that some areas are safer than others. And you’ll see that there is still normal, day-to-day life for the inhabitants in many parts of the country. 

Jeff, go for it!

Ed Reynolds
Woodland Hills, CA