Honor Flight warms hearts of Cold War/Korea vets Part I

Posted by Pat Kinney on Thursday, May 24, 2018

By PAT KINNEY

WATERLOO – Several Cold Warriors became “road warriors” this past week, accompanying a larger group of mostly Vietnam veterans on the 21sth Honor Flight from the Waterloo Regional Airport to visit U.S military memorials in Washington D.C.

About 15 veterans who served from the end of the Korean War up through the early stages of the Vietnam War, went on the flight, They came from nearly all branches of service and served in or near Korea and all other parts of the world.

Arden Terfehn of Austinville, near Allison in Butler County, was in the Navy from 1955-59 and served on the heavy cruiser USS Toledo in the Pacific off the coast of Korea and China.

“We were kind of all over. We were in Chinhae, Korea for a while. I know we spent time in the Formosa straits escorting supply ships to Matsu and Quemoy,” Terfehn said. referring to the crises in the middle to late 1950s in which Communist China sought to take control of two islands claimed by the opposing Nationalist Chinese government on the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan. “We were in Vietnam too one time. I remember going to Saigon.”

(above photo) Arden Terfehn of Austinville, a U.S. Navy Korean and Cold war era veteran, was among the veterans welcomed home at a packed Waterloo Regional Airport homecoming reception following the May 22 Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.

He entered the Navy in late 1955, ceased active duty in 1959 and was formally discharged in 1961 after reserve duty. While the war in Korea was “pretty much over” by then, tensions remained high between the West and the communist nations during the Quemoy-Matsu crises, the first in 1954 and the second in 1958, when Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered the bombing of Quemoy. The U.S. had signed a security pack with Taiwan’s Nationalist government after the 1954 crisis.

“We ended up pretty lucky, I guess. We never got into anything real serious,” Terfehn said.

Terfehn is one of about 15 fellow Korean/Cold War era veterans along with more than 80 Vietnam veterans who made the May 22 Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. It is a free one-day trip to visit Washington, D.C. military memorials

“My wife kept telling me ‘You’re going to be 80 years old this year. If you’re going to do it, you better do it, otherwise we’re going to have to push you around in a wheelchair!” he joked.

Don Billhorn of Readlyn served in the U.S. Army from 1956-58, including 18 months in Germany with the 532nd Observation Battalion. “The Hungarians were acting up then; we were put on alert for a few days,” he said, referring to the unsuccessful 1956 Hungarian Revolt against that nation’s Soviet-backed communist government. “We had good duty. We were fortunate.”

He was one of four Readlyn residents going on the May 22 trip. “My son-in-law will go on the flight with me. He was Air Force. He was ROTC at Iowa State,” Billhorn said. “It’s exciting to be able to go. I saw the Vietnam memorial when we were there in ’85. That Korean memorial, it’s just like the eyes are looking at you.”

Pablo Mercado of Cedar Falls served in the U.S. Air Force from 1958-62. “My first year (was) in Las Vegas, Nevada; the second year, in Iceland; my third year in Japan and my last year in Okinawa,” he said. “I got to see three-fourths of the world. I know how many of these people suffered; how many of these people died. Sharing time with these individuals, and going to Washington to see all these monuments in honor of these guys, it’s very impressive.”

Darrell Albrecht of New Hampton and Charles Albrecht of Readlyn are brothers. They served in the Army on opposite sides of the world.

“I served in Germany from 1960-62,” Darrell said, including during the 1961 Berlin Crisis, when the Soviets unsuccessfully sought to drive Western forces out of West Berlin. “I was there when the Berlin Wall went up. And my wife and I went back when it came down,” he said, on a return trip in the late ‘80s.

(above photo) Brothers and Army vets Darrell and Charles Albrecht, shown here from left to right, were among more than 100 local military veterans on the May 22 Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.

Charles went a different direction. “I was in the 76th  Engineer Battalion near Inchon, Korea, or near Kimpo Air Base,” he said. “From August of ’59 until August of ’60 I was in Korea,” he said. And he had a recent flashback

“We were watching the news and it showed the North Korean leader (Kim Jung-un) and the South Korean leader (Moon Jae-in), and each of them taking a step across the line,” in the demilitarized zone at Pammunjom, “and I said ‘my God, I was in the building!’ That building looked the same as when I was there in 1959. It looked like an old chicken house. And we went in from the South Korean side; there was a table that divided the building. We could walk down our side of the table. There was a string down the middle. And you did not dare put your finger across the string or anything. That was where the (1951-53) peace talks took place. The tension was there. We got to go, but it was just scary as hell. If you stepped across your line, you’d had it.” He worked on a road crew south of the demilitarized zone. He “never, ever” thought the leaders of the two countries would meet.

“We didn’t even know each other was doing it,” Charles Albrecht said he and his brother about the Honor Flight. “Somebody told me I ought to do it, and somebody told Darrell he ought to do it. We’re on the end of the Korean line there, pre-Vietnam, and they wanted to get both of us.”

“I stated it out and pretty soon he wanted to do it,” Darrell said. “I apprised the neighbors who had been on the Honor Flight, and they said ‘You better do it.’  I don’t get around so good anymore so I’m glad we’re doing it.” Family members accompanied them.

(above photo) Participants in the May 22 Cedar Valley Honor Flight from the Waterloo Regional Airport witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, along with visiting other military memorials in Washington, D.C.

Additional Waterloo Honor Flights are planned Sept. 25 and Oct. 23; there is still room on the Oct. 23 flight. Military veterans from Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Grundy and the northern half of Tama counties who served from World War II through Korea and the Vietnam wars or the Cold War in between are eligible. More than 1,400 local veterans have made the flights locally since they began flying out of Waterloo in 2011.

Applications may be picked up at any of the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Waverly Hy-Vee Stores or by going to the organization's website, www.cedarvalleyhonorflights.org, or the Cedar Valley Honor Flight's Facebook page. Donations are being accepted to continue the flights. Questions may be directed to White at whitedog67@q.com or co-organizer Frank Magsamen at fmagsbhc@hotmail.com.