CLEVELAND, Ohio -- My great grandfather, Private Edward J. Connelly, died in World War II at 25. He had only seen his daughter, my grandmother, once -- when she was two months old.
He died six months later in 1944. He hadn’t been in Normandy, France, for more than two days. He had just been called to be a replacement runner when he was hit with heavy artillery fire to his abdomen while running across a field.
His body was returned and laid to rest in his home state of Pennsylvania when my grandmother was 4. She is now 81, has five children and 11 grandchildren. I was able to pay tribute to my great grandfather through Honor Flight Cleveland .
HFC is comprised of mainly veterans who, through donations, honor the U.S. veterans who served our country by giving them an all-expense paid trip to visit the monuments and memorials.
There are more than 350 veterans on the waiting list, said organization President Jacob Smith. More than 80 years after my great grandfather’s death, I am still soaking in the trip to Washington D.C.
On HFC’s Oct. 25 trip, the last trip of the year, I got to spend the day visiting the war memorials and monuments with the nearly 30 veterans, two of whom served in the Korean War veterans and the rest Vietnam. I made sure to share my great grandfather’s story.
I know details about my great grandfather’s service thanks to Sarah Hardman Giachino, who, with the help of a genealogist friend, found my grandmother and aunt. They connected on Facebook. She.
