Meadowlakes WWII vets prepare for another mission
Meadowlakes residents Bud Lowry (left) and Art Strickland will be in Washington, D.C., on May 2-3 as part of the Honor Flight Austin group. The two friends and World War II veterans will visit the World War II Memorial and other significant spots during the trip through Honor Flight. The organization provides the trips for World War II veterans but will begin expanding it to include Korean War veterans. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
MEADOWLAKES — If the organizers don’t let him do it, Bud Lowry will figure out a way on his own.
“I may have to sneak off,” said Lowry, a World War II veteran and Meadowlakes resident, with a slight grin. “But, no, they told me if I have the location, they’ll get me there.”
Lowry hopes to find the grave of a friend who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., when he and fellow Meadowlakes resident Art Strickland make the journey there May 2-3 as part of the Honor Flight program. Honor Flight provides trips to World War II veterans to the World War II Memorial and other sites.
The trip is free for the veterans.
Lowry, a former Naval aviation radioman, and Strickland, a former Marine aviator, are looking forward to the trip. Though neither saw combat during their military careers, they both understand the cost many, including close friends, paid during the war.
“I think we all knew somebody who died in that war,” Strickland said. As a Marine stationed in Hawaii during the war, Strickland flew a B26 Martin Marauder with a tow target that allowed Navy ships to practice anti-aircraft gunnery.
Lowry and his squadron were getting ready to report to an aircraft carrier in San Diego when the Navy changed up his orders and sent him to Detroit. On the way to the Motor City, he learned the reason for the change: the U.S. had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, hastening an end to the war.
One of Lowry’s best friends from high school, Earl McGill, had joined before him and ended up in combat on one of the many Pacific Islands. McGill lost a leg in combat but survived. He passed way in the 1990s and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Lowry hopes to locate his grave on the trip to Washington, D.C.
“I’d like to get a picture of his grave and send it to some of the others we graduated from high school with,” Lowry said. “I still keep in touch with a few.”
That’s one of the reasons for Honor Flight — to give veterans such as Lowry and Strickland an opportunity to see the memorial and remember the friends who have gone on before them.
Neither man has visited the World War II Memorial, though they’ve made previous trips to the nation’s capital.
“I think I’ve seen the area where the monument is,” Strickland said. “But it will be a treat to be there with all the other veterans. That’s what makes something like this so different and special.”
Lowry found out about the trips by chance when a fellow veteran took an earlier Honor Flight. So Lowry checked into it and applied. He also encouraged Strickland to apply for the trip.
Honor Flight accepted both men’s applications, so now they’ll join a larger group flying out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on May 2.
And it’s not just the trip that’s important for both men. Lowry hopes to spread the word about Honor Flight.
“I’d like other veterans to know about it and how they can go,” Lowry said. “I think it’s very important that as many World War II veterans can get to go.”
Go to www.honorflightaustin.org or www.honorflight.org for more.
daniel@thepicayune.com