San Fernando Valley Veterans unite at Wendy’s
By: Cindy Libonati
Leo Keligan
Just to keep my audience updated on Wings over Wendy’s, I wanted to tip my readers off to a Daily News article written by Dennis McCarthy:
“The party starts at about 9 every Monday morning at Wendy’s restaurant in West Hills, and ends around 11 a.m. The vets finish their last cup of coffee, tell their last joke, and head for the exits to make room for the lunch crowd starting to wander in.
“See you next week,” they say, shaking hands. Drive safe.
No one passing them in the parking lot seems to have any idea who these men are, because if they did they’d probably stop and thank them.
They certainly deserve it. When this country asked them to leave their families and help us out of some tight spots around the world, they did.
World War II, Korea, Vietnam.
Most of them were pilots, navigators and bombardiers. They call themselves “Wings Over Wendy’s” and a more colorful, down-to-earth bunch of people you’re not going to find.
When I walked in to talk to them Monday, the raffle winners were just being announced. The prizes included a pack of 10 ballpoint pens, two small sacks of oranges from somebody’s backyard tree, and a videotape of “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
Beautiful.
“Crash” Blechman, Ed Figueroa, Mickey Epstein and a handful of other aviation veterans came up with the idea of a weekly Monday morning get together at Wendy’s about nine years ago. Today, the group has 140 members.
Crash, who died last year, earned his dubious nickname after crashing five Navy fighter planes during his military career.
He always joked that the Japanese acknowledged him as one of their aces.Laughs are a big part of this exclusive club. War grudges are hard to keep when one of your former members flew for the German Luftwaffe.
He told Figueroa he knew the war in Europe was almost over when he took off one day with 40 other Luftwaffe pilots and were met by 1,200 American planes.
“We never imagined when we started Wings Over Wendy’s that it would grow this big,” Figueroa said Monday, looking around the packed room.
Sitting a few feet away from the former B-26 gunner, 89-year-old Clyde East – the most decorated combat pilot in the room – sat with his young granddaughter.
He felt it was important that she have the chance to be here with him and meet some of these men, said East, a quiet, unassuming man.
The great ones usually are. East flew more than 200 combat missions in World War II and another 100 combat missions in Korea during his 25 years of service.
He was awarded dozens of war medals, including the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross, and that was just from our government.
He was also decorated by the governments of England, France, and Belgium. In 1955, Col. East made the Guiness Book of World Records for the highest number of combat medals up to that time.
And on Monday morning – holding his granddaughter’s hand – this incredible old war hero walked to his parked car without getting a second look.
Across town, Lindsay Lohan walked out of jail and back into the headlines.”
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