John Coffelt, Editor

Manchester Comfort Suites  is dedicated to honor veterans by providing a free night’s stay for those going on a Middle Tennessee Honor Flight to tour the veteran memorials in Washington D.C. 

Comfort Suites General Manager Kayla Transue said that the hotel is very veteran motivated.

“We like to help contribute with hotel rooms,” she said.  “We make sure the team and the veteran are taken care of.”

She said growing up as an Army brat she knows how difficult that life can be.

“You try to do everything you can to help. That’s what it really boils down to.”

Navy veteran Howard “Buzz” Thayer, 96, went of his first honor flight April 20.  

“It was an amazing experience. It was inspiring, emotional to be part of that. The thing that stood out and made it so rewarding was … everywhere we moved people recognized who we were. (They) spontaneously stopped and cheered.”

“To me that was the one thing that stood out,” he said.

Thayer was stationed in Pearle Harbor in the last years of WW II.

He was the guard mail driver in the Navy  to the supreme commander of the Pacific Fleet. In a time before prolific electronic communications, Thayer hand delivered orders by hand to the ships anchored at Pearle.

Trayer gives his wife, Penny, all the credit for getting him connected with the honor flight people.

Honor Flight Photographer Paul McCullough said that it only takes one veteran to tear up at the memorial to make the flights all worthwhile.

Trayer was particularly touched by mail call. McCullough got the idea from other Honor Flights for a mail call, letters from family to be handed out to veterans during the trip.

“I call all the next of kin and secretly get together letters and cards and I take them up there,” he said.

After the Navy, Thayer, joined the military at 17 rather than graduate from high school, used the GI Bill to attend UCLA where he majored in physical education. He later became a the university’s swimming and water polo coach. Five of his swimmers medaled at the Olympics.

For more information on Honor Flight of Middle Tennessee, go to https://honorflightmidtn.org.  

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.