It was a rainy day, and Jim and Leona Pelkey decided to go to a football game. It was their senior year at Syracuse University, and he brought a bottle of brandy and some coffee, while she brought an umbrella. They traded, and started dating a week later.
Today, the couple, who live at the Legacy at Clover Blossom in Brighton, have been together for almost 62 years of marriage, a marriage that began soon after their service in World War II.
Their service to their country was honored recently when the Pelkeys traveled to Washington, D.C., on an Honor Flight with 44 other veterans.
Founded in 2005, the Honor Flight Network program honors United States’ war veterans by providing them with the means to travel to the war memorials in Washington, D.C., free of cost.
Nancy Pelkey and Barb Dwyer, two of Jim and Leona’s three daughters, joined them on their flight and shared the experience.
“A lot of servicemen would thank them for their service,” said Nancy. “There were a couple of girls that came up to my mom and asked if she was a nurse, and when she told them that she was a mechanic, their jaws just dropped.”
Working in assembly and repair with automatic pilots, Leona, now 88, was transferred to Hawaii after a three-month program in Chicago. She had only four other women on her team.
“We would take them apart, clean them up, put them back together, calibrate them and send them back out,” she said.
Barbara said that her mother helped open the door to women’s rights by working as a mechanic during the war.
“As a part of the whole effort, the WWII vets changed the world, especially the women,” she said. “They left their houses and kitchens and started doing what was considered to be man’s work. They were successful at it as well.”
Being the only female veteran on the Honor Flight trip, Leona was not only thanked for her service, but for agreeing to travel the distance — especially since many of the veterans felt as though their service was like any other job, said Barb.
“One of the things that struck me when talking to the veterans was that nobody thought of what they did during the war as being very special — it was a job,” she said. “They did what they were told to do. It was what everybody else was doing.”
It was a rainy day, and Jim and Leona Pelkey decided to go to a football game. It was their senior year at Syracuse University, and he brought a bottle of brandy and some coffee, while she brought an umbrella. They traded, and started dating a week later.
Today, the couple, who live at the Legacy at Clover Blossom in Brighton, have been together for almost 62 years of marriage, a marriage that began soon after their service in World War II.
Their service to their country was honored recently when the Pelkeys traveled to Washington, D.C., on an Honor Flight with 44 other veterans.
Founded in 2005, the Honor Flight Network program honors United States’ war veterans by providing them with the means to travel to the war memorials in Washington, D.C., free of cost.
Nancy Pelkey and Barb Dwyer, two of Jim and Leona’s three daughters, joined them on their flight and shared the experience.
“A lot of servicemen would thank them for their service,” said Nancy. “There were a couple of girls that came up to my mom and asked if she was a nurse, and when she told them that she was a mechanic, their jaws just dropped.”
Working in assembly and repair with automatic pilots, Leona, now 88, was transferred to Hawaii after a three-month program in Chicago. She had only four other women on her team.
“We would take them apart, clean them up, put them back together, calibrate them and send them back out,” she said.
Barbara said that her mother helped open the door to women’s rights by working as a mechanic during the war.
“As a part of the whole effort, the WWII vets changed the world, especially the women,” she said. “They left their houses and kitchens and started doing what was considered to be man’s work. They were successful at it as well.”
Being the only female veteran on the Honor Flight trip, Leona was not only thanked for her service, but for agreeing to travel the distance — especially since many of the veterans felt as though their service was like any other job, said Barb.
“One of the things that struck me when talking to the veterans was that nobody thought of what they did during the war as being very special — it was a job,” she said. “They did what they were told to do. It was what everybody else was doing.”
Leona added, “Even the men on the trip came up to me and thanked me for coming on the trip.”
While Leona worked from U.S. soil, Jim, 87, served overseas as a signalman, taking 61 trips across the English Channel on a dock landing ship. His last trip found him transporting British troops to Hamburg, Germany.
Leona typed all of Jim’s written stories, including those about how he encountered “wicked” storms and hit the coast of Normandy on D-Day. And the two just want these stories to be remembered.
“I wish the schools put a little more emphasis on history,” Jim, said.
“There is so much history to remember,” added Leona.
During the Honor Flight trip, Robert Dole, the honorary advisor of the Honor Flight program, showed his gratitude to the veterans, and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks also paid a visit to the memorial as a solo guardian.
What made the trip even more memorable was how well-organized it was, said Leona.
“It was the little things that they remembered,” she said, adding that the program’s volunteers constantly supplied the veterans with food and water. “They are the nicest people you could ever ask for.”
According to Rich Stewart, director of the Legacy at Clover Blossom in Brighton, the trip was just a small way to thank them for their service.
“You guys really set the stage for us — we’re really proud of you,” he said.
