StoryPoint Troy had the honor of taking four of its veteran residents on Honor Flight Dayton, which is an all expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. to visit all the memorials. The four amazing residents who went on this trip were: Don Barnes, Julia Willoughby, Richard Votaw and Vickie Boone.
Don Barnes was born in Dayton, Ohio and drafted into the U.S. Army in 1954. He went to Camp Gordon for military police training and upon completion was stationed in Fort Lewis in Washington State. While there, he often witnessed the FBI arriving with World War II deserters to serve their mandatory five-year prison sentences.
Julia Willoughby was born in 1941. After becoming a Registered Nurse, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy because she “liked the ships and uniforms.” She saw duty in stations like Fairbanks, Columbus, Denver, California and Wyoming. Her favorite field of nursing was Maternal Child Health. She was a nurse for 50 years.
Richard Votaw was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1934. He was an electronics technician in Naval Aviation. After nine months of training, in Tennessee, he was stationed in London, England where he met his first wife who was a secretary for the founder of Tin Pan Alley, a musical community for upstarts. 15 years after coming to the U.S., his wife became a citizen.
Vickie Boone was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1952 and joined the U.S. Navy directly from high school in the hope of becoming a nurse. The program was full at the time so the Navy placed her in a clerical position at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. She eventually found her career as a traveling nurse, working at all the hospitals in the State of Florida.
All in all, StoryPoint was honored to engage these four veterans in an adventure unlike any they had experienced before. They all displayed an abundance of humility through this act of dedication and appreciation.
