December 27, 2023 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Diane Hight's father was a war hero—but also an alcoholic due to his PTSD from World War II. To honor him, she founded Forever Young Veterans, an organization started on the principle of taking WWII vets to the memorial in Washington D.C.—and which became an effort to take them back to Normandy and beyond. Here's her story.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, a
story from Diane Height, a Forever Young Veterans, an organization
in Memphis, Tennessee that grants wishes for World War Two,
Korea and Vietnam veterans. He does it out of love
for one of the most important men ever to be
in her life. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think I do it for my dad. He loved people.
He was very outgoing. He was handsome and people liked him,
and I liked him. He was playful. He loved to
(00:55):
go swimming, he liked to play games. I remember him
my bicycle. He owned his own barbershop. He was very talented.
He would have people that would come from long distances
to get their haircut by Am. He was an artist,
he really was. I enjoyed that part of him. But
(01:21):
my dad was known as an alcoholic. It was very humiliating,
it was shameful, hurtful. If his lips touched alcohol, he
was a goner and he would be drunk for a
solid week, two weeks. The longest that he was intoxicated
(01:46):
was a month. And that's without stopping. I'm talking about
drinking from the moment he woke up till he went
to bed and just did that for a solid month.
So we really struggled a lot. And back in World
War two, I know that this is very hard for
people to understand, but they didn't trust banks. It was
(02:08):
a new thing giving your money to a bank. I mean,
why would you take that kind of risk. So he
kept all his money in his wallet, which he would
have a lot of money in his wallet. Then he
would go and start drinking, and what do you think
would happen? He would lose all his money, somebody would
take it from him, and then we didn't have anything.
(02:30):
I remember several times the church bringing us food. I
know my dad did not want to be that way.
I know he hated it, but I don't think he
knew how to get out of it. And because they
didn't address PTSD back in those days, he was just
(02:54):
in a vicious cycle. When my dad went to war,
he was seventeen. I mean that's just a young, very
young man. He had never been anywhere. He was just
a country farm boy, and I think he probably had
(03:17):
a very tender soft heart. Well, my uncle got drafted
into the army and he was in the first calve.
He went on the beaches of Laty, and they gave
him the Silver Star medal. Well, when my uncle Aaron
was drafted, my dad thought, I don't think I would
(03:39):
work out too well in the army, so he joined
the coast Guard. He thought that this would be the
safest branch because he thought they would guard the coast.
(03:59):
Have you ever heard the saying a drunk man's words
are a sober man's thoughts. That was my dad. He
never talked about it, but he did. When he was drinking,
he was crying. He ended up on a frigate and
they lost people. He had lost comrades, He had been
(04:21):
asked to do some things that really devastated him, and
because he cared so much about people, it wounded his soul.
We were on a trip one time and one of
the daughters said to me, the Navy's safe, and I said, oh,
please don't say that. I mean, I knew a man
(04:43):
that was on the USS Indianapolis. They all have risks.
I know. My dad suffered. Our family suffered too. When
you have something dysfunctional going on in your family like that,
it's really devastating for everyone. But as I began to
grant wishes for worl War two veterans. Something happened that
(05:08):
really shocked me, and that was the fact that I
found these War War two veterans were suffering just like
my father, and their families were suffering as well, just
like we did. And I did not expect that because
anytime you go through something like a tragedy or alcoholism,
(05:30):
or you have anything like that going on in your life,
you think you're the only one, and I really did.
I didn't know that other people were suffering the same way.
One thing about my dad is he loved America, and
he instilled that in me. Where there is great sacrifice,
(05:52):
there's great love. It's just like raising children. You know,
there's a lot of sacrifice in raising kids, but oh
the love you have for them. And it was the
same way with my dad in America. He had sacrificed
so much for our country, and oh the love he
had for our nation, so instilling that in me. I
(06:15):
wanted to give back to the World War Two veterans
because my dad had never asked for anything from our country.
He didn't for what he had done. I felt like
I had a calling. I really had this feeling that
I was supposed to do something, and I didn't know
what it was. And I got down on my knees
(06:37):
and I prayed, and I asked God to show me
I had a family. I was always cooking dinner at
five point thirty in the evening, so I never watched
the national news. And on this day, my children were gone.
They were older at this time. My youngest son was
the senior in high school. My husband was a pilot
at FedEx. So I went in and I turned on
(07:00):
the TV. It was the National News, and at that
very moment, it showed a gentleman from Indianapolis who was
granting a wish for a senior lady. She was ninety
two years old and her wish was to ride in
a race car at the Indianapolis five hundred. And I've
(07:21):
always had such a love for older people. And when
she got out of that race car and she had
on racing gear and she had just the joy on
her face, I thought, this is exactly what I'm going
to do. So that's basically how it started granting wishes
(07:41):
for World War Two veterans.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And you've been listening to Diane Height shared deeply personal
stories about her family, about her dad, and about herself
in the end, and what it was like growing up
with a father who suffered from PTSD due to his
service in World War two, and who knows what other
trauma he might have experienced before World War two, back
(08:12):
before anybody was allowed to talk about such things. It
was just not done. Guys came back from World War Two,
then well they just went back to life. See Best
Years of Our Lives the movie the Oscar winning movie
with Frederick marsh Go to Amazon and buy it. That's
what that movie's about. In the end, one of the
first movies to cinematically and in mass ways look at
(08:36):
the impact of war on mostly men. At the time,
men were the ones at the front lines. Her description
of her father's alcoholism, what heart she had. She didn't
judge her dad. She tried to understand her dad, despite
the havoc he may have wreaked on the family because
of his alcoholism, sometimes going on benders for a week,
sometimes for a month, the mere taste of alcohol him
(09:00):
off into a bad place for a long time. And
even that description of him having the money on him
and getting it rolled when he'd get drunk and coming
home with not only no work but no money and
yet there she is praying a fervent prayer, wondering what
she can do to honor men like her dad, who
gave so much to the country and asked asked for
(09:21):
nothing back. I think that's what really struck her, the
sacrificial nature of what so many of our soldiers have
and continue to do for this country and ask for nothing. Truly,
they asked for nothing. When we come back, more of
Diane Heights's story, her father's story, and the prayer that
(09:41):
was answered. He was determined to grant wishes for World
War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans. More of Diane Heights's
story here on our American Story, and we returned to
(10:10):
our American Stories and the story of Forever Young Veterans,
an organization that grants wishes for World War II, Korea
and Vietnam veterans, telling the stories the group's founder, Diane Height.
When we last left off, we found out that Diane
started the organization because she wanted to give back to
people like her father who fought for freedom. Let's get
(10:31):
back to the story here again is Diane Height.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I was thinking in the beginning that I would grant
just some small individual wishes for them. Maybe we could
reunite them with a comrade they hadn't seen, or maybe
get them a medal that they were promised that they
never received. That's kind of what I was thinking. One
of our first was a World War iiO pilot. He
(11:03):
just wanted to sit in a cockpit and just talk
about the advances and aviation technology. So we arranged for
him to do that FedEx. They were kind enough to
let him go into one of their airplanes, and there
were several pilots that went in there with him. And
(11:24):
in my mind, I'm thinking, Oh, this is gonna be
really nice. He's gonna sit in this modern day cockpit
and just talk about some of the things in there
for thirty minutes, and they were in there for four hours.
It brought him so much joy. He enjoyed it immensely.
But the wishes they didn't stay small very long. I
(11:47):
can say that I never thought about taking veterans on trips.
That never entered my mind. It kind of happened by accident,
I say, because I had a veteran that asked me
if I would take him to the World War Two
Memorial in Washington, d C. And I said, yes, And
(12:11):
of course I wasn't going to take a trip with him.
What I was doing was arranging for one of my
friends who was a marine in DC. I was going
to fly this veteran there and he was going to
intercept him and take him around to the memorials and
then he was going to fly back. That was my plan.
But what ended up happening is I found out seniors
(12:35):
do talk. I received a phone call from a veteran
and he's like, hey, I was at the athletic club
and this World War two veteran said that you were
sending him to Washington, d C. And I want to go.
I'm a WW two vett And I was like okay,
So I took down his name and number. Then the
next day I get a phone call and this man said,
(12:56):
we were church last night and this vet said that
you you are taking him to the World War two
memorial There's five of us in our church and we
would really like to go. I said, okay, and I
took down his name and phone number, and it's just
how happening. And I get a phone call from our
(13:17):
local newspaper in Memphis and they said, we hear that
you're taking World War two veterans to Washington, D C.
And I was like, yes, And at this time I
really didn't know how I was going to work all
this out. And I said, well, we have eight veterans
on the list right now, so we can only take
(13:39):
a couple more. My husband used to be stationed at
the Pentagon, and so I asked him, I said, since
you're used to driving in DC, how about if we
just take these eight vets and we will rent a
van there and we'll take them to the Memorial and
we'll just fly back with him. And he's like, that's fine.
(14:00):
So I'm thinking about a fifteen passenger van. Well, I
told the newspaper, I said, you have to put in
there that we can only take three more. And guess
what happened. We had thirty World were two veterans contact us,
and they went up to their upper nineties, and I
(14:22):
realized then they were not going to be able to
go alone. So I went to a travel agency and said,
you've got to help me get these guys there. So
our first trip to Washington, D C. Was in nine
We had about fifty of us total, and when we
got there, we just saw such healing take place in
(14:45):
their lives. It was a perfect trip. Now, in my mind,
I was thinking this was a one time deal. But
we got back and within forty eight hours we had
fifty more veterans. And each time we we would just
see God work miracles in their lives. Just even going
to d C, just the camaraderie of them being together.
(15:10):
It was just amazing to see that so many of them,
just like my dad, had never talked about it. Many
of them had come home and become alcoholics, or they
had dealt with it in their own way. But one
thing that they all had in common was they were
suffering silently. One thing that happened on one of these trips.
(15:40):
We were in Washington, d C. And one of our
veterans he kept me on the shoulder and he said,
you know what I really want. So what do you
really want? He said? Will you take me back to Normandy?
And I kind of laughed. It's one thing taking ninety
five year olds to Washington, d C. It's a whole
(16:02):
other thing taking them out of the country. I went
to church on Sunday and I said to my Sunday
school class, I said, I need y'all to pray that
God will give me a sign, because if I shouldn't
be taking these men out of the country, then I
don't want to do this. I had never had anyone
(16:23):
ask to go to France or Normandy, not one veteran.
Soon as that came out of his mouth, I started
having veterans contact me. Will you take me back to Normandy?
I would I want to go back to Normandy. Please
take me back to Norway. It was just constant, and
I couldn't believe it. Well, that week a gentleman contacted me.
(16:47):
Didn't go to our church, and he said, well, you
have lunch with me, and I said yes, So I
went to lunch with them and he said, well, I've
heard that you're trying to take some of our veterans
back to France. And I was like, you know this.
And he's handed me a check for one hundred thousand
dollars and he said, you take our boys back to Normandy.
(17:12):
I thought I have a sign. So we took our
very first trip to Normandy in twenty eleven. Oh and
as healing and especial as going to DC is, nothing
compares to taking them back to where they fought. It
hasn't changed there It's not like being in America where
(17:32):
everything's constantly changing. Normandy and Belgium, it's exactly the way
it was during the war. We actually had a veteran
find his foxhole. I mean, that just would never happen here,
but it happened there. Just them being able to walk
on Omaha Beach where they stormed it on June six,
(17:55):
forty four, and they had their comrades with them. So
many of them had never talked about the war, but
here they are together and it would just flow out
of them. So many of their children would say, I've
learned more about my dad on this trip than i
(18:17):
have living with him my whole life. I've not been
in combat. They're not going to share those kinds of
things with me. But they will talk to one another
and you would just see them over in a corner
and they would just be talking, and that's where a
(18:37):
lot of the healing takes place. Taking them back to
where they fought is healing, but taking them back together.
There just aren't any words for it.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
And what a story you're hearing. It starts out with
one woman's heart wanting to do something special for World
War two veterans, taking him to the World War Two
Memorial in Washington, d C. Pretty soon it turns into
taking some vets to Normandy, to Omaha Beach, and a
gentleman handing her one hundred thousand dollars check in saying,
(19:12):
take our boys to Normandy, take them to Omaha Beach.
The story of Forever Young Veterans continues here on our
American stories, and we return to our American stories and
(19:40):
the final portion of our story on Forever Young Veterans.
Let's get back to the story here again. Is Diane Height.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Before every trip, I will pray God, you know what
these veterans need. I don't give it to them. Whatever
it is, give it to them. I've got a couple
stories to tell you. One of the veterans, KT Hardwick.
(20:14):
He went with us for the seventieth anniversary. He was
a pow. He got captured in the Hedgerows. He told
me a story that just broke my heart. But he
got captured by the SS. He said that they had
stuffed him in a box car to take him by
train to Germany, and they were stuff so tight in
(20:39):
there they could not move, and if they needed to
use the restroom they had to soil themselves. They couldn't
have water or food. He said, if it rained, they
would just try to get a rain drop on their tongue,
and he had suffered greatly. Sometimes will say to me,
(21:01):
how can you take these men back? I mean, isn't
that a terrible thing to do to make them think
about this? And my answer is they're thinking about it
every single day. After he went back to Normandy with
us for the seventieth anniversary, he called me and he said,
(21:24):
I have had nightmares about being a prisoner for seventy years.
I would dream I was being tortured. I had terrible nightmares,
terrible dreams. But an interesting thing has happened now that
I'm back. I am still dreaming, but instead of dreaming
(21:49):
about being tortured, now I'm dreaming I'm coming home. That's healing.
That is one of my favorite wishes that we've granted,
because there is such a change in his life. And
we also have one very similar from a vet that
(22:10):
went back with us for the seventy fifth anniversary. He
said to me, I know people won't believe this, but
every single morning when I wake up, the first thought
I have is about d Day. This was seventy five years.
He said, I steal dream about D Day, think about
(22:31):
D Day. It's the first thing on my mind when
I wake up every single morning. After he came back
from there, he said, you're not going to believe this, Diane.
This is the first time in my life since the
war that I wake up in the morning and I
don't have D Day on my mind. Taking them back
(22:56):
does not make them think about it. Taking them back
gives them closure. We just see these miracles. Oh, this
one just really touched me deeply. We were taking World
War two veterans to Washington, DC, and this lady called
(23:19):
me and she said, my husband's a Vietnam veteran. He
really needs to go on this trip. And I said, well,
this is all World War two, not that that matters,
but I said, you know you are going to be
taking some Vietnam veterans on our next trip. Maybe he
would rather go on that one. And she goes, no, no, please,
(23:40):
She had such an urgency in her voice, Please, he
needs this. And it was only like a week before
we left, and as you know, the airline tickets go
up as it gets close. But I thought she's just
pretty much begging me. I can't turn her away. You know,
people are more important than money, and so so we're
(24:02):
just gonna We're gonna get him a ticket and he's coming.
When you go on a trip, if you don't know
how groups work. So for instance, if we have fifty
people on our trip, we make arrangements with the restaurants
and when we go there, they have fifty place settings.
So we get to our restaurant at Union train station
(24:26):
and we all sit down. There's an empty seat next
to this Vietnam vet, which that just doesn't happen. And
I was wondering, why is there an empty seat there?
But I didn't say anything. It didn't matter. Everyone had
a seat. And then this man walked in and he's
(24:47):
introduced himself and he said, my dad is on your trip,
and I went, oh, really, I said, I didn't know
you were coming. He didn't tell me. He goes, oh,
he doesn't know I'm here. I just flew in from Arizona.
He said, you know how you ask everyone to write
letters to their loved one and I was like yes,
(25:10):
and he said, you see, I couldn't write a letter
to my dad. I haven't spoken to him in fifteen years.
And he said, I have flown here today because we'd
given the schedule out to the family and so his
mom had sent it to him, so he knew where
we were. And he said, I have come here to
ask his forgiveness. And I was like, oh my gosh,
(25:34):
there's an empty seat by him, and I said, he's
right over there. Well, his dad was in this conversation
to his left. I mean, they were really talking, and
so his son goes in and slips in that chair
beside his dad. His dad didn't even notice because he
was talking. And then it seemed like forever. Finally he
(25:57):
looked to the right and he sees his son and
they begin to cry, and in front of everyone, his
son says, Dad, please forgive me. It was just so emotional.
And after we ate, his dad came up to me
and he said, do you mind if I go and
(26:20):
stay in his hometeil room with him? And I said,
of course not. Just be at this place tomorrow morning
at a certain time. That's all you have to do.
You'll just enjoy each other tonight. And that changed this
veteran's wife. He's the one that was struggling so much,
(26:41):
and look what God gave him. His son back, and
it restored not only their relationship, but look what it
did for their whole family. Please see, God do all
kinds of things, even simple things. One World War Two veteran,
(27:02):
he lived around Nashville, and he would come visit his
daughter in Memphis, and when he would get here, he
would say to her, please take me to the Naval
Air Station. I just want to see if there's somebody
there that has my ship on their hat. He so
desperately wanted to talk to someone that had been on
his ship. And she's thinking, oh, Dad, there's not going
(27:24):
to be anybody there from your ship, but she would
always take him. Each time he visited, this would be repeated,
Please take me to the Naval air station. Let me
find someone from my ship, the USS Ranger. Well, they
were on our very first trip to Washington, D C
and O nine and we get to the World War
(27:47):
Two Memorial and who is there but a sailor in
his original uniform with the USS Ranger on his hat.
And it was the original hat where it's embroidered in it.
And he saw that, and there wasn't anything that would
(28:11):
have meant more to him than to find someone from
his War two ship. Just the joy of them being
able to talk and be together. It was just such
a beautiful thing to watch, and it was such a
simple thing, but it meant everything to him. I do
(28:33):
it for my dad, being able to do this for him.
In a way, as we bring healing and comfort to
these veterans, I'm doing it for my dad, and I
think he's no longer remembered for being an alcoholic. Now
(28:53):
my dad is being remembered for taking his suffering and
helping bring healing to his comrades. It changes their families,
it changes their communities because so many of these men
and women have never talked about it. They start going
to schools, they write books. We've had a lot of
(29:15):
veterans write books that weren't even talking about it when
they became a part of Forever Young Veterans. So we've
seen healing take place, and so it's really changed my
dad's legacy.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery and a special thanks to
Diane Height And if you would like to help Forever
Young Vets, go to Foreveryong Vets dot org to find
out more. By the way they're going to the eightieth
anniversary of D Day next year, and from these stories,
can you imagine the healing it will occur? Before every trip,
(29:56):
I pray, God, you know what these veterans need. I
don't give it to them, And my goodness, did God
give it to them. Diana Hate's story, her dad's, and
veterans everywhere who've seen battle up close and personal. Here
on our American Stories.
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, a
story from Diane Height, a Forever Young Veterans, an organization
in Memphis, Tennessee that grants wishes for World War Two,
Korea and Vietnam veterans. He does it out of love
for one of the most important men ever to be
in her life. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think I do it for my dad. He loved people.
He was very outgoing. He was handsome and people liked him,
and I liked him. He was playful. He loved to
(00:55):
go swimming, he liked to play games. I remember him
my bicycle. He owned his own barbershop. He was very talented.
He would have people that would come from long distances
to get their haircut by Am. He was an artist,
he really was. I enjoyed that part of him. But
(01:21):
my dad was known as an alcoholic. It was very humiliating,
it was shameful, hurtful. If his lips touched alcohol, he
was a goner and he would be drunk for a
solid week, two weeks. The longest that he was intoxicated
(01:46):
was a month. And that's without stopping. I'm talking about
drinking from the moment he woke up till he went
to bed and just did that for a solid month.
So we really struggled a lot. And back in World
War two, I know that this is very hard for
people to understand, but they didn't trust banks. It was
(02:08):
a new thing giving your money to a bank. I mean,
why would you take that kind of risk. So he
kept all his money in his wallet, which he would
have a lot of money in his wallet. Then he
would go and start drinking, and what do you think
would happen? He would lose all his money, somebody would
take it from him, and then we didn't have anything.
(02:30):
I remember several times the church bringing us food. I
know my dad did not want to be that way.
I know he hated it, but I don't think he
knew how to get out of it. And because they
didn't address PTSD back in those days, he was just
(02:54):
in a vicious cycle. When my dad went to war,
he was seventeen. I mean that's just a young, very
young man. He had never been anywhere. He was just
a country farm boy, and I think he probably had
(03:17):
a very tender soft heart. Well, my uncle got drafted
into the army and he was in the first calve.
He went on the beaches of Laty, and they gave
him the Silver Star medal. Well, when my uncle Aaron
was drafted, my dad thought, I don't think I would
(03:39):
work out too well in the army, so he joined
the coast Guard. He thought that this would be the
safest branch because he thought they would guard the coast.
(03:59):
Have you ever heard the saying a drunk man's words
are a sober man's thoughts. That was my dad. He
never talked about it, but he did. When he was drinking,
he was crying. He ended up on a frigate and
they lost people. He had lost comrades, He had been
(04:21):
asked to do some things that really devastated him, and
because he cared so much about people, it wounded his soul.
We were on a trip one time and one of
the daughters said to me, the Navy's safe, and I said, oh,
please don't say that. I mean, I knew a man
(04:43):
that was on the USS Indianapolis. They all have risks.
I know. My dad suffered. Our family suffered too. When
you have something dysfunctional going on in your family like that,
it's really devastating for everyone. But as I began to
grant wishes for worl War two veterans. Something happened that
(05:08):
really shocked me, and that was the fact that I
found these War War two veterans were suffering just like
my father, and their families were suffering as well, just
like we did. And I did not expect that because
anytime you go through something like a tragedy or alcoholism,
(05:30):
or you have anything like that going on in your life,
you think you're the only one, and I really did.
I didn't know that other people were suffering the same way.
One thing about my dad is he loved America, and
he instilled that in me. Where there is great sacrifice,
(05:52):
there's great love. It's just like raising children. You know,
there's a lot of sacrifice in raising kids, but oh
the love you have for them. And it was the
same way with my dad in America. He had sacrificed
so much for our country, and oh the love he
had for our nation, so instilling that in me. I
(06:15):
wanted to give back to the World War Two veterans
because my dad had never asked for anything from our country.
He didn't for what he had done. I felt like
I had a calling. I really had this feeling that
I was supposed to do something, and I didn't know
what it was. And I got down on my knees
(06:37):
and I prayed, and I asked God to show me
I had a family. I was always cooking dinner at
five point thirty in the evening, so I never watched
the national news. And on this day, my children were gone.
They were older at this time. My youngest son was
the senior in high school. My husband was a pilot
at FedEx. So I went in and I turned on
(07:00):
the TV. It was the National News, and at that
very moment, it showed a gentleman from Indianapolis who was
granting a wish for a senior lady. She was ninety
two years old and her wish was to ride in
a race car at the Indianapolis five hundred. And I've
(07:21):
always had such a love for older people. And when
she got out of that race car and she had
on racing gear and she had just the joy on
her face, I thought, this is exactly what I'm going
to do. So that's basically how it started granting wishes
(07:41):
for World War Two veterans.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And you've been listening to Diane Height shared deeply personal
stories about her family, about her dad, and about herself
in the end, and what it was like growing up
with a father who suffered from PTSD due to his
service in World War two, and who knows what other
trauma he might have experienced before World War two, back
(08:12):
before anybody was allowed to talk about such things. It
was just not done. Guys came back from World War Two,
then well they just went back to life. See Best
Years of Our Lives the movie the Oscar winning movie
with Frederick marsh Go to Amazon and buy it. That's
what that movie's about. In the end, one of the
first movies to cinematically and in mass ways look at
(08:36):
the impact of war on mostly men. At the time,
men were the ones at the front lines. Her description
of her father's alcoholism, what heart she had. She didn't
judge her dad. She tried to understand her dad, despite
the havoc he may have wreaked on the family because
of his alcoholism, sometimes going on benders for a week,
sometimes for a month, the mere taste of alcohol him
(09:00):
off into a bad place for a long time. And
even that description of him having the money on him
and getting it rolled when he'd get drunk and coming
home with not only no work but no money and
yet there she is praying a fervent prayer, wondering what
she can do to honor men like her dad, who
gave so much to the country and asked asked for
(09:21):
nothing back. I think that's what really struck her, the
sacrificial nature of what so many of our soldiers have
and continue to do for this country and ask for nothing. Truly,
they asked for nothing. When we come back, more of
Diane Heights's story, her father's story, and the prayer that
(09:41):
was answered. He was determined to grant wishes for World
War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans. More of Diane Heights's
story here on our American Story, and we returned to
(10:10):
our American Stories and the story of Forever Young Veterans,
an organization that grants wishes for World War II, Korea
and Vietnam veterans, telling the stories the group's founder, Diane Height.
When we last left off, we found out that Diane
started the organization because she wanted to give back to
people like her father who fought for freedom. Let's get
(10:31):
back to the story here again is Diane Height.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I was thinking in the beginning that I would grant
just some small individual wishes for them. Maybe we could
reunite them with a comrade they hadn't seen, or maybe
get them a medal that they were promised that they
never received. That's kind of what I was thinking. One
of our first was a World War iiO pilot. He
(11:03):
just wanted to sit in a cockpit and just talk
about the advances and aviation technology. So we arranged for
him to do that FedEx. They were kind enough to
let him go into one of their airplanes, and there
were several pilots that went in there with him. And
(11:24):
in my mind, I'm thinking, Oh, this is gonna be
really nice. He's gonna sit in this modern day cockpit
and just talk about some of the things in there
for thirty minutes, and they were in there for four hours.
It brought him so much joy. He enjoyed it immensely.
But the wishes they didn't stay small very long. I
(11:47):
can say that I never thought about taking veterans on trips.
That never entered my mind. It kind of happened by accident,
I say, because I had a veteran that asked me
if I would take him to the World War Two
Memorial in Washington, d C. And I said, yes, And
(12:11):
of course I wasn't going to take a trip with him.
What I was doing was arranging for one of my
friends who was a marine in DC. I was going
to fly this veteran there and he was going to
intercept him and take him around to the memorials and
then he was going to fly back. That was my plan.
But what ended up happening is I found out seniors
(12:35):
do talk. I received a phone call from a veteran
and he's like, hey, I was at the athletic club
and this World War two veteran said that you were
sending him to Washington, d C. And I want to go.
I'm a WW two vett And I was like okay,
So I took down his name and number. Then the
next day I get a phone call and this man said,
(12:56):
we were church last night and this vet said that
you you are taking him to the World War two
memorial There's five of us in our church and we
would really like to go. I said, okay, and I
took down his name and phone number, and it's just
how happening. And I get a phone call from our
(13:17):
local newspaper in Memphis and they said, we hear that
you're taking World War two veterans to Washington, D C.
And I was like, yes, And at this time I
really didn't know how I was going to work all
this out. And I said, well, we have eight veterans
on the list right now, so we can only take
(13:39):
a couple more. My husband used to be stationed at
the Pentagon, and so I asked him, I said, since
you're used to driving in DC, how about if we
just take these eight vets and we will rent a
van there and we'll take them to the Memorial and
we'll just fly back with him. And he's like, that's fine.
(14:00):
So I'm thinking about a fifteen passenger van. Well, I
told the newspaper, I said, you have to put in
there that we can only take three more. And guess
what happened. We had thirty World were two veterans contact us,
and they went up to their upper nineties, and I
(14:22):
realized then they were not going to be able to
go alone. So I went to a travel agency and said,
you've got to help me get these guys there. So
our first trip to Washington, D C. Was in nine
We had about fifty of us total, and when we
got there, we just saw such healing take place in
(14:45):
their lives. It was a perfect trip. Now, in my mind,
I was thinking this was a one time deal. But
we got back and within forty eight hours we had
fifty more veterans. And each time we we would just
see God work miracles in their lives. Just even going
to d C, just the camaraderie of them being together.
(15:10):
It was just amazing to see that so many of them,
just like my dad, had never talked about it. Many
of them had come home and become alcoholics, or they
had dealt with it in their own way. But one
thing that they all had in common was they were
suffering silently. One thing that happened on one of these trips.
(15:40):
We were in Washington, d C. And one of our
veterans he kept me on the shoulder and he said,
you know what I really want. So what do you
really want? He said? Will you take me back to Normandy?
And I kind of laughed. It's one thing taking ninety
five year olds to Washington, d C. It's a whole
(16:02):
other thing taking them out of the country. I went
to church on Sunday and I said to my Sunday
school class, I said, I need y'all to pray that
God will give me a sign, because if I shouldn't
be taking these men out of the country, then I
don't want to do this. I had never had anyone
(16:23):
ask to go to France or Normandy, not one veteran.
Soon as that came out of his mouth, I started
having veterans contact me. Will you take me back to Normandy?
I would I want to go back to Normandy. Please
take me back to Norway. It was just constant, and
I couldn't believe it. Well, that week a gentleman contacted me.
(16:47):
Didn't go to our church, and he said, well, you
have lunch with me, and I said yes, So I
went to lunch with them and he said, well, I've
heard that you're trying to take some of our veterans
back to France. And I was like, you know this.
And he's handed me a check for one hundred thousand
dollars and he said, you take our boys back to Normandy.
(17:12):
I thought I have a sign. So we took our
very first trip to Normandy in twenty eleven. Oh and
as healing and especial as going to DC is, nothing
compares to taking them back to where they fought. It
hasn't changed there It's not like being in America where
(17:32):
everything's constantly changing. Normandy and Belgium, it's exactly the way
it was during the war. We actually had a veteran
find his foxhole. I mean, that just would never happen here,
but it happened there. Just them being able to walk
on Omaha Beach where they stormed it on June six,
(17:55):
forty four, and they had their comrades with them. So
many of them had never talked about the war, but
here they are together and it would just flow out
of them. So many of their children would say, I've
learned more about my dad on this trip than i
(18:17):
have living with him my whole life. I've not been
in combat. They're not going to share those kinds of
things with me. But they will talk to one another
and you would just see them over in a corner
and they would just be talking, and that's where a
(18:37):
lot of the healing takes place. Taking them back to
where they fought is healing, but taking them back together.
There just aren't any words for it.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
And what a story you're hearing. It starts out with
one woman's heart wanting to do something special for World
War two veterans, taking him to the World War Two
Memorial in Washington, d C. Pretty soon it turns into
taking some vets to Normandy, to Omaha Beach, and a
gentleman handing her one hundred thousand dollars check in saying,
(19:12):
take our boys to Normandy, take them to Omaha Beach.
The story of Forever Young Veterans continues here on our
American stories, and we return to our American stories and
(19:40):
the final portion of our story on Forever Young Veterans.
Let's get back to the story here again. Is Diane Height.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Before every trip, I will pray God, you know what
these veterans need. I don't give it to them. Whatever
it is, give it to them. I've got a couple
stories to tell you. One of the veterans, KT Hardwick.
(20:14):
He went with us for the seventieth anniversary. He was
a pow. He got captured in the Hedgerows. He told
me a story that just broke my heart. But he
got captured by the SS. He said that they had
stuffed him in a box car to take him by
train to Germany, and they were stuff so tight in
(20:39):
there they could not move, and if they needed to
use the restroom they had to soil themselves. They couldn't
have water or food. He said, if it rained, they
would just try to get a rain drop on their tongue,
and he had suffered greatly. Sometimes will say to me,
(21:01):
how can you take these men back? I mean, isn't
that a terrible thing to do to make them think
about this? And my answer is they're thinking about it
every single day. After he went back to Normandy with
us for the seventieth anniversary, he called me and he said,
(21:24):
I have had nightmares about being a prisoner for seventy years.
I would dream I was being tortured. I had terrible nightmares,
terrible dreams. But an interesting thing has happened now that
I'm back. I am still dreaming, but instead of dreaming
(21:49):
about being tortured, now I'm dreaming I'm coming home. That's healing.
That is one of my favorite wishes that we've granted,
because there is such a change in his life. And
we also have one very similar from a vet that
(22:10):
went back with us for the seventy fifth anniversary. He
said to me, I know people won't believe this, but
every single morning when I wake up, the first thought
I have is about d Day. This was seventy five years.
He said, I steal dream about D Day, think about
(22:31):
D Day. It's the first thing on my mind when
I wake up every single morning. After he came back
from there, he said, you're not going to believe this, Diane.
This is the first time in my life since the
war that I wake up in the morning and I
don't have D Day on my mind. Taking them back
(22:56):
does not make them think about it. Taking them back
gives them closure. We just see these miracles. Oh, this
one just really touched me deeply. We were taking World
War two veterans to Washington, DC, and this lady called
(23:19):
me and she said, my husband's a Vietnam veteran. He
really needs to go on this trip. And I said, well,
this is all World War two, not that that matters,
but I said, you know you are going to be
taking some Vietnam veterans on our next trip. Maybe he
would rather go on that one. And she goes, no, no, please,
(23:40):
She had such an urgency in her voice, Please, he
needs this. And it was only like a week before
we left, and as you know, the airline tickets go
up as it gets close. But I thought she's just
pretty much begging me. I can't turn her away. You know,
people are more important than money, and so so we're
(24:02):
just gonna We're gonna get him a ticket and he's coming.
When you go on a trip, if you don't know
how groups work. So for instance, if we have fifty
people on our trip, we make arrangements with the restaurants
and when we go there, they have fifty place settings.
So we get to our restaurant at Union train station
(24:26):
and we all sit down. There's an empty seat next
to this Vietnam vet, which that just doesn't happen. And
I was wondering, why is there an empty seat there?
But I didn't say anything. It didn't matter. Everyone had
a seat. And then this man walked in and he's
(24:47):
introduced himself and he said, my dad is on your trip,
and I went, oh, really, I said, I didn't know
you were coming. He didn't tell me. He goes, oh,
he doesn't know I'm here. I just flew in from Arizona.
He said, you know how you ask everyone to write
letters to their loved one and I was like yes,
(25:10):
and he said, you see, I couldn't write a letter
to my dad. I haven't spoken to him in fifteen years.
And he said, I have flown here today because we'd
given the schedule out to the family and so his
mom had sent it to him, so he knew where
we were. And he said, I have come here to
ask his forgiveness. And I was like, oh my gosh,
(25:34):
there's an empty seat by him, and I said, he's
right over there. Well, his dad was in this conversation
to his left. I mean, they were really talking, and
so his son goes in and slips in that chair
beside his dad. His dad didn't even notice because he
was talking. And then it seemed like forever. Finally he
(25:57):
looked to the right and he sees his son and
they begin to cry, and in front of everyone, his
son says, Dad, please forgive me. It was just so emotional.
And after we ate, his dad came up to me
and he said, do you mind if I go and
(26:20):
stay in his hometeil room with him? And I said,
of course not. Just be at this place tomorrow morning
at a certain time. That's all you have to do.
You'll just enjoy each other tonight. And that changed this
veteran's wife. He's the one that was struggling so much,
(26:41):
and look what God gave him. His son back, and
it restored not only their relationship, but look what it
did for their whole family. Please see, God do all
kinds of things, even simple things. One World War Two veteran,
(27:02):
he lived around Nashville, and he would come visit his
daughter in Memphis, and when he would get here, he
would say to her, please take me to the Naval
Air Station. I just want to see if there's somebody
there that has my ship on their hat. He so
desperately wanted to talk to someone that had been on
his ship. And she's thinking, oh, Dad, there's not going
(27:24):
to be anybody there from your ship, but she would
always take him. Each time he visited, this would be repeated,
Please take me to the Naval air station. Let me
find someone from my ship, the USS Ranger. Well, they
were on our very first trip to Washington, D C
and O nine and we get to the World War
(27:47):
Two Memorial and who is there but a sailor in
his original uniform with the USS Ranger on his hat.
And it was the original hat where it's embroidered in it.
And he saw that, and there wasn't anything that would
(28:11):
have meant more to him than to find someone from
his War two ship. Just the joy of them being
able to talk and be together. It was just such
a beautiful thing to watch, and it was such a
simple thing, but it meant everything to him. I do
(28:33):
it for my dad, being able to do this for him.
In a way, as we bring healing and comfort to
these veterans, I'm doing it for my dad, and I
think he's no longer remembered for being an alcoholic. Now
(28:53):
my dad is being remembered for taking his suffering and
helping bring healing to his comrades. It changes their families,
it changes their communities because so many of these men
and women have never talked about it. They start going
to schools, they write books. We've had a lot of
(29:15):
veterans write books that weren't even talking about it when
they became a part of Forever Young Veterans. So we've
seen healing take place, and so it's really changed my
dad's legacy.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery and a special thanks to
Diane Height And if you would like to help Forever
Young Vets, go to Foreveryong Vets dot org to find
out more. By the way they're going to the eightieth
anniversary of D Day next year, and from these stories,
can you imagine the healing it will occur? Before every trip,
(29:56):
I pray, God, you know what these veterans need. I
don't give it to them, And my goodness, did God
give it to them. Diana Hate's story, her dad's, and
veterans everywhere who've seen battle up close and personal. Here
on our American Stories.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.