He was just a boy from Mississippi, born and raised in Louisville, shipped off to war at the age of 18. He was a member of the “Greatest Generation,” fighting in what would later be known as the “Good War.”
Of the 16.1 million Americans who served in World War II, close to 405,000 didn’t come home. Edwin Humphries was one of the lucky ones, protected by angels, he believes. Protected by guardian angels.
Friday afternoon, Humphries sat in his north Columbus living room, holding a stack of letters from school children. He picked one from the pile and started to read aloud, but tears blurred his eyes and choked his voice before he could finish the first sentence. In the crooked script of a child, the letter writer called him a hero. She thanked him for his service in a war that happened more than half a century before she was born.
It’s not the first time Humphries has been overcome with emotion over the past few months, and it likely won’t be the last. It’s been that way since he learned he was among 94 WWII veterans chosen by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight for a one-day flight to Washington, D.C. to tour the war monuments most have never seen.
Dedicated to honor
Last May was the inaugural flight for the nonprofit organization, which is based in Gulfport, and since that time, volunteers have taken 263 Mississippi veterans on the free trip, including Humphries, who participated in the April 24 expedition.
The goal of the group is simple — honoring the men and women who fought for their country and giving them an experience they will never forget.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs estimates the average WWII veteran is 86, Humphries’ age. By the time the National World War II Memorial was completed in 2004, many of the men it was built to honor were unable to make the journey to see it.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight is working to change that. Part of more than 100 Honor Flight hubs across the nation, the organization arranges every detail, providing transportation and medical care for veterans, even those who are oxygen-dependent, wheelchair-bound or have dementia or other health issues.
A volunteer guardian accompanies each veteran, paying for the roundtrip flight from Gulfport to Washington and serving as caretakers by pushing wheelchairs and making sure they remain safe during the daylong event.
On the return trip, each veteran was given a bundle of 50 letters from Gulf Coast school children as a permanent reminder they are appreciated and loved.
The whole day was special, Humphries said as he brushed his hands across the crayon drawings and construction paper cards. But the letters. The letters get to him.
He’s been thanked before for his service to our country, but over the past few years, it’s become more frequent. Through the Honor Flights, a bridge is being formed between “the Greatest Generation” and a generation raised in the shadow of a post-9/11 world.
Painful memories
Humphries joined the U.S. Army in June 1944, training in Fort Bliss, Texas and Fort George G. Meade in Maryland before departing from San Francisco with the 32nd Infantry Division.
For the next two years, he fought in the Pacific Theater, becoming an expert rifleman and machine gunner, doing his best to stay alive.
The 32nd Infantry’s campaigns at that time centered upon trying to drive the Imperial Japanese Forces out of the Philippines. The infantry was among the first to enter combat, and the last to leave, serving 654 days during which the Red Arrow Division killed more than 32,000 Japanese soldiers.
As Allied Forces in Europe battled bitter cold, those in the Pacific slashed and crawled their way through steamy jungles, where temperatures could easily top 100 degrees Fahrenheit and dry clothes became a distant memory of home.
“It rained every day,” Humphries said. “It was horrible. Horrible.”
Even more horrible were the atrocities he witnessed, he said. He started to speak of the things he saw — the women, the children, the babies — and he stopped.
As he fought for words, his wife, Nelda Humphries, gently interjected. He didn’t have to talk about that part, she told him. No one would mind if he left the most difficult memories out of his narrative.
He stared out the living room window to the wind-tossed trees splaying dappled sunlight across the lawn.
He nodded. Fast forward. There was no need to relive the unthinkable.
“Two days before the Japanese surrendered, we were way deep in the jungles and I woke up totally blind,” he said. “I had an eye infection and went to the Army field hospital, where I got hepatitis. I flew back (to the United States) with the first American POWs to return. They were horribly mutilated — things you can’t imagine.”
Because he was so sick, he was transported first to LaGarde General Hospital in New Orleans, then later to Northington General Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
When he received a 20-day pass to go home to Louisville, he was taken as far as the ambulance could go — Columbus, where flood waters nearly ended his journey.
Because so many soldiers were returning at the same time, there was little fanfare associated with the homecoming. They returned to their hometowns and picked up their lives where they had left them.
Humphries enrolled in business classes at East Central Mississippi Community College in Decatur. Then he moved to St. Louis to take a job with Emerson Electric, making radar-controlled gun turrets for the U.S. Navy.
His vision never returned to his right eye.
A race against time
He is still amazed when he thinks about the gift he was given by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight.
He stood in front of the National World War II Monument with his fellow veterans, and they placed a wreath at the granite pillar inscribed with one word: Mississippi.
He saw the Freedom Wall, which has 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who did not come home.
He saw the memorials dedicated to veterans of the Korean War and Vietnam War. He watched the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
At the end of the day, the veterans returned to a heroes’ welcome in Gulfport, where more than 3,000 people clapped, cheered and waved flags.
“Words can’t describe it,” he said. “When I think about all the hard work and time all these people put in to make this flight possible for us, I get teary-eyed, because I’m so humbled.”
Nelda Humphries said she was equally grateful, because it meant so much to him.
The U.S. Veterans Administration estimates WWII veterans are dying at a rate of 740 per day. She hopes they will all have the chance to see their memorial before it’s too late.
Edwin Humphries’ Honor Flight guardian, Sylvia Jones of Gautier, said that’s part of why she volunteered. Her father, Henry J. Reynolds, was a WWII veteran. He passed away before the memorial was complete.
She called Humphries “a true gentleman” and said she has made a friend for life.
“The joy in everybody’s faces as they supported those veterans was very moving,” she said via telephone Friday afternoon. “It was happy and moving and it tugged on your heart. It was a day I will never, ever forget.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
World War II veteran Edwin Humphries, of Columbus, goes through letters that were given to him during his Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. The letters were written by children from elementary schools in Ocean Springs, Vancleave, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, all to thank him for his time of service to the U.S. Photo by: Sam Gause/Dispatch Staff
