Otto “Woody” Anderberg gives a thumbs-up sign Tuesday indicating he was ready to go for his Dream Flight at Butler Field in Hutchinson. Anderberg, a 100-year-old resident at Harmony River in Hutchinson, is a World War II veteran.
Otto “Woody” Anderberg will long remember Aug. 31. It’s not every day you’re treated to a lights-flashing-and-horns-blasting escort by the Hutchinson police and fire departments. The 100-year-old World War II veteran who rode in a DAV-supplied van was on his way to Butler Field for the flight of a lifetime.
Anderberg, who lives at Harmony River, a Presbyterian Homes and Services senior living community in Hutchinson, was a participant in Operation September Freedom.
Sponsored by Dream Flights, the nonprofit organization launched Operation September Freedom Dec. 7, 2020, with a mission to locate and honor as many World War II veterans as possible with free Dream Flights. The coast-to-coast national tour began Aug. 1 and runs through September. Volunteer pilots are flying six restored Boeing Stearman biplanes and stopping in towns wherever WWII veterans live to fly them 1,000 feet into the air for a 15-20 minute ride. Since 2011, Dream Flights has honored more than 4,200 seniors and veterans with biplane rides. Operation September Freedom is Dream Flights’ first tour with a mission of honoring veterans who served in a particular war.
After several speeches, the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and thunderous applause by friends and family, Anderberg was assisted into the cockpit of The Spirit of Wisconsin, a restored bright yellow 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane, which used the same engine found in Gen. George S. Patton’s tanks.
“It was pretty smooth,” he said of the experience “They hoisted me in.”
Dream Flights volunteers Max Combeau and Darryl Fisher assist Otto "Woody" Anderberg into the cockpit of The Spirit of Wisconsin, a 1943 restored Boeing Stearman biplane. Ready to lend a hand was a Hutchinson firefighter.
When he was asked if he talked with the pilot via the headset he wore, Anderberg answered with a quick, “No.”
“I was too busy looking around,” he said. “I was surprised by how much water there is in McLeod County, how many lakes and streams.”
Darryl Fisher, founder and president of Dream Flights, was Anderberg’s pilot during Tuesday’s flight.
“Operation September Freedom is our last chance to honor our nation’s WWII heroes for their service and sacrifice,” he said in a press release. “Wherever WWII veterans are located, we’ll find our way to their nearest airport and create a moment of magic they can relive until their last days.”
According to Marilyn Chaffee, vice president of operations and pilot for Dream Flights, the group felt a sense of urgency. WWII effectively ended on Victory over Japan Day, or V-J Day, Sept. 2, 1945. Now 66 years later, of the 16 million Americans who answered the call to serve, only about 100,000 are alive today. As a result, they chose to focus on providing flights exclusively for World War II vets through Sept. 30.
“We’re shooting for 1,000 vets in 49 states during August and September,” Chaffee said. “We’re all over the U.S. and will touch down in more than 300 cities.”
Looking back on Tuesday’s event, daughter Debra Field of Litchfield thought it was “fabulous.”
“Our whole family was thrilled for him,” she said. “I think it’s a wonderful program.”
Dream Flights volunteer Max Combeau gives the go sign for takeoff to pilot Darryl Fisher.
REMEMBERING THE ARMY AIR CORPS
The Grove City farm boy enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 during World War II. He wanted to be a pilot, but due to missing two weeks of training because of illness, he was eliminated from the program.
“I wasn’t flying by the seat of my pants,” he said. “I was told, ‘You don’t have a feel for it.’”
Anderberg didn’t go far for his next assignment as an aerial gunner instructor in Loretto, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Rapid City, South Dakota. He taught soldiers how to assemble, use and repair the five .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine guns used on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress four-engined heavy bomber.
“They had to know how to assemble it blindfolded,” he recalled.
In an interesting twist, Anderberg recently learned that one of his students back then was the father of a fellow Harmony River resident.
During the 1940s, he said Phoenix was known as the “Hollywood of the Army Air Corps.” The moniker was earned because the movie “Thunderbirds” used the air field as a backdrop. The film was directed by William A. Wellman and starred Gene Tierney, Preston Foster and John Sutton.
“I had 100 hours piloting in the Stearman,” he said. “The last time I flew in a biplane was 1945. Piloting is more fun. We were practicing maneuvers all the time in the Air Corps. We just flew on Tuesday, no maneuvers.”
Following his flight, Darryl Fisher, pilot, president and founder of Dream Flights, presents Otto "Woody" Anderberg with a commemorative cap.
After his discharge in 1946, Anderberg was appointed postmaster of Grove City by President Harry Truman. Looking for a change in his career, he later became a rural carrier.
Reflecting on his long life, he’s proud of his two children — Brian, who lives in Bloomington, and Field, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
The centenarian moved to Harmony River in December.
“I never gave living to 100 much thought and I still don’t,” he said.
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Aerial view of the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C., showing emergency crews responding to the destruction caused during the 9/11 terrorist attacks when a high-jacked commercial jetliner crashed into the southwest corner of the building.
There are definitive moments in life when you always remember where you were. For some it was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The death of Lady Di, or even Prince. For others, it was Sept. 11, 2001, the day the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked by terrorists.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of this life-altering event. Jane Schuette will never forget that date. The former Hutchinson teacher taught at Park Elementary in the 1980s. During the 1990s, she was director for high potential services for the district. From there, she went on to work with Dave Conrad and Kirsten Kinzler at New Century Charter School. Today she consults with New Discoveries Montessori Academy in Hutchinson on its staff development initiatives. She lives in Watertown and is a self-improvement author, executive coach, team facilitator and motivational speaker.
Schuette will always remember where she was on 9/11 because she was teaching her first course as an independent contractor for a learning and development company headquartered in Scotland that was breaking into the U.S. market. The client: JMESI.
Jane Schuette
“(It was) a Joint Military Executive Skills Institute put in place by Congress to ensure the heads of our military hospital would have sound skills to lead the clinics and hospitals of our service men and women around the world,” Schuette said. “In the civilian world, typically hospitals and clinics are led by business-trained professionals, allowing the medical personnel to do what they have been trained to do — mend the sick and injured. To help with the skill gap in the military, JMESI was formed. Along with online training, they offered a weeklong capstone course where they brought the officers who were trained medical nurses and doctors to Washington, D.C.”
Schuette’s course was on the campus of Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland — 18 miles from Washington, D.C. On that morning of Sept. 11, the session was interrupted by an important message alerting all personnel to be on high alert — the World Trade Center in New York City had been bombed.
“I watched as the men and women sat at attention, staring directly at me, not listening but attentive. I continued. ... I don’t know what I said. They didn’t either,” she recalled.
The next announcement: the Pentagon had been hit and the atmosphere in the room completely changed. Sitting before Schuette was a room full of people who had dedicated their lives to the protection of us all. Now it had become personal. After taking a break, there was a third interruption. Army and Navy personnel were to report to Walter Reed Hospital and scrub up for incoming wounded. Air Force personnel were to convene in a separate location.
Upon an ordered dismissal of class, Schuette found solace in the garden behind Malone House on the Walter Reed Medical Center campus. In the distance she could see the spiraling smoke from the Pentagon.
Class continued on Wednesday, although quiet and somber.
She also remembered how sober in demeanor the students were.
“It was Wednesday, Sept. 12, their world had been rocked as military service men and women,” Schuette said. “No one knew what to think, what was going on. It was the start of everything.”
Fast forward 20 years, Schuette’s focus in her work is for her clients to better understand themselves, especially when it comes to understanding and managing stress with the goal of being the best possible version of themselves.
She sees a variety of factors affecting a person’s stress from depleted time, energy and focus, to emotional reserves being drained due to cynicism or passion fatigue, and finally to identity and values being challenged.
“Stress is also generated when our emotions are running strong for too long or when our identity and values have been challenged,” Schuette said. “This expanded view of stress has been an aha moment for me, audiences and the clients I coach. It’s rocking our world. It’s good for us to take time and step back and look at our emotions and our values.”
Looking back on her Sept. 11 experience, Schuette said it brought to her — front and center — the realism of war.
“It brought me to the very fringes of it,” she said. “I had never experienced this in Watertown or Hutchinson before. I stood on the balcony at Walter Reed Hospital and watched them set up for triage. That was what, a minimal inside peek? I can’t imagine what’s going on in Afghanistan now.”
Twenty years later, much like Radar on the old sitcom “MASH” who could hear a helicopter miles away, Schuette is sensitive to the sound of helicopters, bringing her back to that impactful day.
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You can’t miss the bright yellow digger at the Big Toys for Little Kids Expo. After a two-year break, the event is back this Saturday.
If you’ve got a kid who loves big trucks, emergency vehicles and utility trucks, save the date — Saturday, Sept. 11 — for the Big Toys for Little Kids Expo, sponsored by the McLeod County Voiture 414, Forty & Eight Veterans Organization.
Start at 10 a.m. and going until 1 p.m., kids age kindergarten through fifth grade can experience the thrill of sitting in a big rig in the parking lot at Hutchinson High School, 1200 Roberts Road S.W.
Jerry Block, coordinator of the event, got the idea when he saw it one time in Waconia.
“They had a small display at the high school,” he recalled. “I thought we could do that here. We tried it. The first year, it was helter-skelter. We didn’t know what we were doing. We got a bunch of guys out there with their stuff. After that it started picking up.”
For three hours, children can explore the big rigs to their heart’s content. The biggest draws? Block said probably the big fire truck, combine and tractors.
In addition, kids can check out Hutchinson Police Department’s mobile command center, plus the McLeod County Sheriff’s bomb squad truck.
“We want to introduce the smaller kids to the police, so they’re not afraid,” Block said. “We try to keep it friendly for the kids.”
To give you an idea how popular the event is, the Forty & Eight gave away 1,000 hot dogs in 2018, the last time the event took place. It’s scheduled every two years, and was to have taken place in 2020, but due to COVID-19 it was canceled.
A trip up a Hutchinson Utilities Commission boom truck provided an excellent view of the Big Toys for Little Kids Expo in 2018.
“We do it every other year to try and keep it new,” Block said. “We skip a year and it’s new again.”
The event is timed to coincide with Hutchinson’s Citywide Garage Sale, so there are plenty of families in town for the day.
Block likes to tell the story about a young lad who scratched himself at the event.
“We hauled him on the Gator to the ambulance crew,” Block said. “They put him on a gurney and put a Band-Aid on it and he was as proud as a peacock. It was nothing serious, but we made it serious.”
Come Saturday, Block estimated at today’s prices there will be about $10 million to $12 million worth of equipment in the high school parking lot.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “When we don’t have it the vendors call me. They don’t forget about it. They like coming there.”
