For decades, Bob McArdell didn’t like to talk about his experiences in World War II, a trait he shared with many other stoic vets from that war. But today, the 88-year-old loves to talk about his most recent military experience, which he calls “the most wonderful thing I’ve gone through in my life.”
In April 2010, McArdell, whose daughter, Kathe Nickleby, is principal of Mahtomedi High School, took an “honor flight” to Washington, D.C. to see the World War II Memorial. The flights are arranged and funded by Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit organization created to honor America’s veterans for their sacrifices. McArdell recently participated in a showing of a documentary film about the honor flights; when it was shown at Mahtomedi High School, he provided an introduction.
The honor flight was a long day for the aging vets in their 80s and 90s, who flew out of the Twin Cities at 4 a.m., and returned home 20 hours later. But “it meant the world to him to be with the other veterans,” Nickleby says. In a sense, the effort to honor World War II veterans is a race against time, since about 640 of them die each day, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
When he was growing up in St. Paul’s Highland neighborhood, McArdell was held back a year in school due to health problems. As an 18-year-old, he was only halfway through his senior year of high school in 1943 when he was drafted into the Army. After basic training, McArdell wound up in France in September 1944, three months after the successful D-Day invasion. He served as a railroad brakeman, helping run trains that carried supplies from the coast to the front lines.
After the war ended in Europe, McArdell and his comrades were put on a ship headed to Japan to participate in a planned invasion. Then the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs ended the war, and McArdell’s ship made a U-turn and returned to France.
When McArdell arrived in the United States to be discharged, “we just got off the boat; there were no parties or parades,” he recalls. He returned to Minnesota on March 31, 1946, and went to work for National Tea Stores as a meat-cutter, before opening his own butcher shop in West St. Paul. He ran the business until 1965, and then went to work for Jerry’s Foods until his retirement in 1990. Along the way, he and his wife, Gerri, raised a family of four daughters.
For decades, McArdell rarely mentioned his wartime experiences. Then, about eight years ago, social studies teachers from Mahtomedi High School began bringing war vets into classrooms to talk about their experiences. When Nickleby’s father came to the school, “I was able to hear the details,” she recalls.
In 2010, McArdell’s daughter Carol Ann heard about the honor flight program and filled out an application. That April, McArdell and about 90 of his fellow vets from a five-state area flew from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Washington, D.C. to spend a day visiting the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam memorials and remembering their experiences from nearly 60 years earlier.
The D.C. airport welcome included a “water salute” arching over the plane, thanks to two fire trucks, a reception line with approximately 30 sailors in dress uniform, and “about 500 to 600 people roaring and hollering as we walked through the line, saying ‘Thank you for your service,’ ” says McArdell. “We felt like kings; it really was a homecoming.”
When the veterans arrived back in Minnesota at 12:30 a.m., there were another 800 or so people there to greet the veterans. “It was the best trip I ever took in my life,” McArdell says, “even better than family vacations.”
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Honor Flight Network Twin Cities would like to hear from more World War II vets who would be interested in participating in an honor flight. Contact Jerry and Jana Kyser at 651.481.8835 for more information.
