Veteran Jim Akers said he recently got to take the trip of a lifetime through the Honor Flight program.
Akers, 81, a former De Soto mayor and current City Council member, was among 60 veterans who spent a day last month in Washington, D.C., through the 104th mission of the Greater St. Louis Honor Flight.
He said he was attending an air show when he learned about Honor Flight, which provides veterans with an all-expenses-paid trip to war and military branch memorials in D.C., and applied to take part.
Four years later, he received a call.
“They take the oldest first,” Akers explained. “I wouldn’t have been on this flight, but two people dropped out, and my name came up.”
Akers’ group consisted of one man from the World War II era while the rest were Korean and Vietnam war-era veterans, like Akers. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1960 to 1963, seeing action after the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961.
A meet-and-greet event was held two weeks before the flight when they received an Honor Flight jacket, T-shirt, cap, a book about the memorials they would visit and a hand-quilted lap throw.
At 5 a.m. Nov. 7, he and the other veterans taking the 104th mission trip boarded a plane at St. Louis Lambert International Airport for the two-hour flight to D.C. When they arrived in the nation’s capital, three buses were waiting for them.
Akers said volunteers, including paramedics and nurses, made sure the veterans were well-fed and happy.
A third of the veterans were in wheelchairs and brought along a caretaker, he said.
“I had a big surprise when we got off the bus the first time,” Akers said. “We were walking to that first memorial, and there’s a little slight hill that we were walking, and I looked up and there was my daughter (Dawn) and granddaughter (Maddie).
“My daughter had flown in from Texas just to meet me there. And my granddaughter’s going to Georgetown (University in D.C.), so she and her mother were there to meet me. I couldn’t believe it at first, and then it hit me.”
He said his granddaughter spent about two hours with him before she had to leave for class, and his daughter stayed a little longer.
Akers said Honor Flight had scheduled six memorial and monument visits, but he got to walk to six additional nearby landmarks.
“I think the one that got to me the most was when we went to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” he said.
Honor Flight had other surprises in store, including “mail call” when Akers received 95 letters and thank-you cards from family members, close friends and strangers all over the country.
Akers said it took him a few days to read all of them.
When he and the other veterans returned to Lambert airport and walked to the main terminal, about 20 members of each branch of the military, dressed in their uniforms, were waiting to greet them.
“That was hard to take,” Akers said. “Anyway, that was just the start because all the way through the terminal, there were people just like that lining inside just waiting on us to get there.”
Area veterans and Scout groups participated, and bagpipes were played, he said.
Jim Akers holds up a poster that greeted him when he returned from a daylong adventure to Washington, D.C., through Honor Flight.
“And if there was somebody sitting at a bar or at a restaurant when we started through (the airport), they all got up and came out, left their drinks, left their food until we all got through there,” he said. “I can’t describe it to you. Honestly, it was just too overwhelming that that many people thought that much of the old veterans.”
The veterans’ family members also welcomed them home.
Besides Akers’ wife and son, a nurse from his doctor’s office in Festus and her father greeted him and presented him with a wooden flag with his name and years of service on it. They also gave him a poster that read, “We came here for you `cause you went there for us. Thanks vets.”
Akers said he normally doesn’t like being around crowds of people because he has post traumatic stress disorder and some hearing loss but he recommends Honor Flight for anyone who has been in the service.
“I can’t explain how much it meant to me,” Akers said. “It just … well, it’s just overwhelming.”
‘Kiddie Cruise’
In 1960, one month after Akers graduated from De Soto High School, he joined the Navy at the age of 17 and served until September 1963 just before his 21st birthday.
He said back then a three-year enlistment for a 17-year-old was referred to as the kiddie cruise.
Akers served as a machinery repairman second class, achieving the rank of E5.
He said his only action was in Cuba.
“They told us en route that it was a top-secret mission and nobody was supposed to say anything,” he said. “They took all of our cameras. They didn’t want to take a chance on us taking pictures. Well, we got down to the Bay of Pigs where there was an invasion that went wrong. We were down there to pick up the survivors from the CIA. It was a CIA mission.”
According to the John F. Kennedy Library, the ultimate goal was to have the CIA secretly train Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro and the communist government.
He said crews were asked to board whaleboats to pick up survivors, and he and two others were in the boat when waves caught it and bounced it a couple of times.
“Then the front of the whaleboat came loose and fell in the water,” he said. “Well, the other two guys, they could grab and get ahold of (the boat) … I wasn’t that fortunate. I was overboard. I have no idea how long I was overboard. Another ship finally picked me up. I was so weak at that time that they sent a couple of people down to carry me up the ladder. They took me to the showers.”
Akers believes he was on board that ship for about six days before he returned to his own ship. Days later they dropped off the survivors and returned to Norfolk, Virginia.
“To this day, (military records don’t) show that my ship was there,” he said.
After that, Akers spent most of his time in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
“You name it, and I was there,” he said.
Life after the Navy
Akers said his future wife, Mary Lou, urged him to leave the Navy when his enlistment was up, and he took her advice.
The two married in 1964 and just celebrated their 59th anniversary. They have two children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Akers worked at McDonnell Douglas for two years and then as a serviceman specialist for the Missouri Natural Gas Co. for 35 years.
A licensed EMT, he worked part-time for Valle Ambulance District for 12 years and spent 40 years with the De Soto Fire Department, retiring as chief in 2006 at the age of 63. During his time as chief, he brought in a half million dollars of grant funding, he said.
In 1966, he served as commander of the De Soto VFW Post 1831. He’s also been active in the Amvets, American Legion, DAV, Knights of Columbus,
De Soto Library Board, Get Healthy De Soto and the Elks.
Akers served on the De Soto City Council in the 1970s, with two years as mayor. He rejoined the council in 2018, again serving two years as mayor, and is finishing his sixth year. His term is up in April and he said he doesn’t plan to refile.