Stepping onto the criss-cross concrete and flora plaza inviting stops-for-a-peek inside the Chieftain Museum, Farrel Bott clutches a blue-plaid flannel blanket. The blanket arrived home with the Santaquin native and war veteran after he and son, Craig Bott, were treated in June to a whirlwind stopover tour of Washington, DC, by the Utah Honor Flight program.
It’s now August. He joins Art Adcock near the Santaquin museum’s permanent outdoor exhibit, a long-range cannon/artillery howitzer acquired in the 1990s by American Legion Post 84, a veterans fellowship organization of which both men are a part.
Both, too, are Vietnam war veterans. And each took part in the June 2022 Honor Flight tour. They met at the museum’s square last week to look back on and relate their experiences with The Payson Chronicle newspaper’s readers.
Mr Adcock penned his story as follows:
On June 7-8, 2022, I, with my son Andy, embarked upon a "trip of a lifetime". Utah Honor Flight selected me to fly to Washington, D.C. to view all the veteran's memorials. Utah Honor Flight's motto is "Their Memorial, Our Mission". Our trip was the 39th and one of us was the 2,000th veteran to travel. Our trip was sponsored by the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation. They donated $75,000.
We left Salt Lake City, Utah, on Allegiant Airlines at 7:30 am, arriving at Baltimore Airport at 2:00 pm. We had breakfast on the plane (it was a chartered flight). Upon our arrival, the Baltimore Fire Department had 2 fire engines forming an archway shooting water cannons over our plane as a tribute. A very nice gesture. We went to the Iwo Jima Memorial (Marines), then to our hotel and a wonderful banquet dinner.
Wednesday, June 8th, we had a breakfast buffet at the hotel, then we boarded the buses at 7:30 am and went to Arlington National Cemetery to view the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There is an Army soldier marching a post at the Tomb 24/7.
Rain, snow, hail, hot, cold, it does not matter- A VERY moving experience.
Next, we went to the Air Force Memorial which is just west of the Pentagon. The Memorial wasn't here when the plane hit the Pentagon, had it been, it might have disrupted their flight path. As it was, the plane hit the ground just prior to the Pentagon and slid into the building. They have planted a grove of trees to mark the impact spot.
We next traveled to the WWII memorial, which is the Army memorial. Tourists visiting saw the 75 veterans arriving. They lined up on both sides of the walkway applauding our arrival and service. A VERY moving experience.
This now has us at the National Mall which is between the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol, with the Washington Monument in the middle. The Washington Monument is 555 feet tall. No structure in Washington D.C. is allowed to be taller. While at the Mall, we viewed the Vietnam, Lincoln, and Korean memorials. I did a "rub" of the Vietnam Wall. Santquin has 3 veterans whose names are on the wall. Charles Dennis Maurin (plate 36 west); Larry Oliver Robbins (plate 27 west); and Joseph Edward Jacquez (plate 25 west).
That "rub" is in the Santaquin city museum.
We boarded buses going to the Navy Memorial and had lunch. After lunch, we boarded buses to see Fort McHenry where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the “National Anthem”.
We were supposed to depart from the Baltimore Airport at 6:00 pm, but due to heavy rain and bad weather we were delayed almost 2 hours. We had dinner on the plane. We finally arrived at the Salt Lake City airport around 11:30 pm. Despite the late hour, the Army 23rd Band, and hundreds of families and friends were there to welcome us home and express their love and appreciation. This was a VERY MOVING EXPERIENCE. Just writing about it brings a flood of emotion and tears to my eyes.
It was the welcome home that should have happened 50 years ago and didn't. Instead those Veterans that were fortunate enough to return home, were called names, spit upon, and dishonored. A sad time for our country.
Words are inadequate to express the appreciation I have for Utah Honor Flight and the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation for making this experience possible. THANK YOU.”
Farrel traveled in a separate convoy, while on the same Honor Flight journey. He spoke of his experience last week:
Blue-plaid flannel blankets were handed to veterans at different stages in the journey in June. Farrel and his tour group companions were presented theirs at the World War II Memorial, with its grand statues and fifty-six granite pillars symbolic of the United States. The blankets came with a shower of cheers. Sweet notes were presented to the veterans by school children, each printed with a QR code that gave access to audio directly through technological devices.
The World War II Monument was especially significant to Farrel. His father, the late James Bott fought in the second World War, while his mom, Donna, supported the war effort from the shipyards as a young bride at home.
Farrel’s military service began shortly after he started a career with US Steel at the Geneva plant in central Utah, after he graduated from Payson High School in 1964. Kathy Higginson graduated from Payson High two years later and the high school sweethearts were married in June 1966.
He joined the reserves, then switched his designated service from Army to the Navy after his draft card was called for the Vietnam war.
“Kathy had always wanted to go on a cruise,” Farrel jokes. The newlyweds embarked on a military version that sailed the young couple--and their car, out of Long Beach, California, along the Pacific Coast to their destination: Portland, Oregon.
“Kathy was an honorary sailor,” he said.
Farrel was sent to serve on the USS Point Defiance, a Naval troop carrier that took marines and equipment used in assaults to beaches during the 1968 Tet Offensive; it was one of the largest military campaigns of the war. His troop was fired on by a shore battery, but managed to escape. Twenty-eight rounds were returned. They took the gunman out.
His remaining tour was served on the USS Talladega.
Farrel’s reflections were shared last week on the same salmon-red steps he climbed to enter his childhood elementary school--the historic Santaquin Central School and modern-day Chieftain Museum. Mom Donna co-founded the movement that saved the building to preserve it as the city’s main museum in 1990; the then-vacated school faced demolition in the late-1980s. The museum’s main-floor Military Room, on the northwest side, was once his kindergarten classroom. His teacher was Mrs Ramona Smith.
Vietnam war veterans Charles Maurin, Larry Robbins, and Joseph Jacquez would have known these steps and school scenery as Santaquin kids. “I was good friends with Larry,” Farrel said. “Dennis was a few years younger.” Their names, reflected in Art Adcock’s “rubs” from the Vietnam Memorial in DC, are now memorialized at home.
Looking back, “I wouldn’t take a million dollars to do it again, but would do it for the memories,” Farrel said. The small town Santaquin boy would have missed having his eyes opened to the plight and poverty he said he witnessed overseas. These experiences gave him a new perspective. Gratitude was instilled. “We don’t know how blessed we are,” said Farrel.
There are twenty-four Santaquin Post 84 American Legion members today and, as Art noted last week, they are “a great bunch of guys.”
The group’s main focus is on the funerals they show up at, dressed in uniform, to pay their respect in verse and song. The brass bugle “Taps” is rendered by recording these days. It works.
“Every veteran deserves to be recognized with military rites,” Art said.
Nine local American Legion veterans climbed on top of a flatbed trailer towed by Farrel’s truck for the 2022 Orchard Days Parade in early August. Their float rides first in the annual Santaquin parade.
The men were moved by a warmer response from parade-goers this year, Farrel and Art said. As the nation’s flag traveled on the flatbed float, people stood up with their hands on their hearts. Every block or so, Doug Rohbock would holler, “God bless America,” Art said, which drew applause from audiences attending the parade.
Both and Farrel said they noticed a shift in the collective mood this year among their neighbors and friends in the Santaquin community- that they seem more patriotic and respectful of the flag and veterans.
Witnessing the Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery was emotional and memorable for both Art and Farrel as they took part in the 2022 Honor Flight in Washington, DC.
The shifting sentiment at home this summer added to their emotive hopefulness for the country.
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