Honor, healing and hope is what one organization seeks to give veterans who served in World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The all-volunteer Forever Young Senior Veterans wants to end the silent suffering of military veterans 65 years and older by granting their unfulfilled dreams, returning them to the places where they fought and sharing their stories of sacrifice with others.

A couple of years ago, a local history teacher established a Forever Young Senior Veterans chapter in Alabama.

Chris Batté, now the Forever Young Senior Veterans Alabama coordinator, got involved with the organization in 2016 after a visit to Pearl Harbor. It was there she discovered her passion for honoring senior veterans.

Batté went on the trip with WWII veteran Sherwin Callander, whom she first came in contact with through her work as a history teacher.

She said she was blown away by the Forever Young Senior Veterans organization, and saw multigenerational healing take place. She believes it gives veterans a sense of closure and camaraderie.

Batté came home wanting other veterans to receive the same opportunities, so she started the Alabama chapter. She coordinates the wishes of Alabama veterans through outreach and fundraising.

“A lot of times our senior veterans have battle stress they don’t deal with,” Batté said during a recent Athens Rotary Club meeting. “Especially our World War II veterans. They came home, they had to rebuild the country, they started their lives, they built their families. And, in a lot of cases, it wasn’t until they retired, they lost their wives, and they had time to sit around and think that they felt the need to deal with it.”

She said many veterans wouldn’t plan an overseas trip at this stage of their lives, but that’s where Forever Young comes in.

Helping veterans

Immediately after starting the Alabama chapter, Batté received a call from a woman in Decatur.

The woman said she had an uncle living in Decatur, and all he did was sit and stare at his four walls.

Batté found out the man, John Kuhn, was depressed and seemingly waiting to die.

She went to visit him and asked about his service. Kuhn told her he was a Higgins Boat or LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) driver in the Battle of Tarawa.

In that battle, the Navy decided it would enter from the lagoon side, but misjudged the tides and all the Higgins Boats got caught on coral reefs, Batté said.

“They were getting pounded by the Japanese,” she said.

Kuhn, who was driving a boat of fearful, young Marines, felt a responsibility for the men because he was older. He told them he would get them home, Batté said.

Though Kuhn drove the Marines ashore, some of the Marines on his boat drowned that day.

“Later, when the battle was over, and he was burying bodies on the beach, he recognized some of them,” Batté said.

Kuhn told Batté he had dreamed about that battle every night for more than 70 years.

“He was burdened,” she said.

Kuhn joined Forever Young Senior Veterans and started attending meetings and making friends.

“It got a little better, but his heart’s desire was to go to Pearl Harbor where he was stationed at one time,” Batté said.

The organization planned a trip for the month of May. The preceding November, Kuhn got pneumonia and was in and out of the hospital three times.

“He looked at me and said, ‘I am determined I’m going to go on this trip,’” Batté said.

Kuhn made the trip, but the first day he was still burdened, she said.

The next day, the group went to Punchbowl Cemetery, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

While there, a custodian of the cemetery spoke about how they were working to bring bodies back to Punchbowl Cemetery from the Pacific Islands. He mentioned Battle of Tawara.

Batté said Kuhn asked the custodian where they found the bodies. The custodian told Kuhn they were found on the upper part of the island, she said.

She said Kuhn replied, “Yes, the airport.”

He also asked what was left of the bodies. The custodian replied, “skeletal remains that were wrapped.”

Kuhn said, “Yes, in their ponchos. I wrapped them in those ponchos.”

The custodian found out Kuhn had buried soldiers’ bodies on the beach.

“We are looking for bodies on the beach,” he told Kuhn. “You can help us bring those boys home.”

Batté said in Kuhn’s mind, he helped find those bodies that day and he brought those boys home.

She said Kuhn’s whole demeanor changed.

Kuhn died Feb. 19, 2019. In March, however, Batté said those same soldiers’ bodies were recovered from the beach.

“We all kind of feel like John went up there and took care of business,” Batté said. “What an honor to be a part of that story.”

Other stories

Kuhn isn’t the only veteran in the area taking part in Forever Young. Harold McMurran of Huntsville was at the Battle of the Bulge on D-Day.

One day, Batté asked if he wanted to go back and he replied, “Nope.”

He told her he didn’t leave anything over there, but he also cried.

One day, McMurran brought Batté a completed application to travel for the 75th anniversary.

The group made the trip and Batté said McMurran remained stoic during the journey.

Two weeks after they returned home, McMurran called Batté and said, “I want you to know I have worried for 75 years about some of things I did over there and I’m not worried anymore.”

Batté believes that is what Forever Young Senior Veterans is all about.

Another veteran in the organization is Charles Henry. As a young man, Henry walked into a recruiting station in California with hopes of being a paratrooper.

Batté said they wouldn’t train Henry because of the color of his skin. Instead, he guarded Italian and German prisoners of war in Wyoming.

Today, Henry believes the Lord knew what he was doing and that was exactly where he needed to be.

However, he believes he lives vicariously through his brothers who went overseas.

“We usually don’t bring veterans unless they fought there, but Charles Henry was with us in Belgium in September,” Batté said. “He had a real memorable experience over there.”

Batté said on Veterans Day, Henry met Sgt. Maj. Billy Counts at Monrovia Middle School.

Counts heard Henry’s story and went out to his truck. He came back to tell Henry, “I just happen to be a jump master and I can make anybody a paratrooper that I want.”

Batté said Counts swore Henry in as a paratrooper. As soon as there’s a pretty day, Henry is making a jump, she said.

All the veterans in Forever Young have a story. They include men like Paul Reeves, who served in Korea and Vietnam, and George Mills, a WWII POW who received a Purple Heart and Silver Star. There’s also Barry Sammet, a Vietnam-era veteran, and Jim Feezel, a WWII Dachau concentration camp liberator.

How it works

Forever Young, which was founded by Diane Hight in 2006, was inspired by one man’s wish to visit the National World War II Memorial.

At the time, many WWII veterans had not witnessed the monument that stands in their honor. The memorial wasn’t complete until 2004 and by then, the trip was too difficult for many elderly veterans to make on their own.

Forever Young made a WWII veteran’s dream possible. Today, more and more senior veterans are making the journey.

The organization plans trips each year, including places like Washington, D.C., Normandy, Belgium, Italy and Pearl Harbor.

“We are looking for veterans,” Batté said of the Alabama chapter. “We don’t have many from Athens, and I just live in Elkmont.”

She encourages WWII, Korea and Vietnam veterans and their families to find out about the organization, which holds monthly meetings, takes trips and is involved with a number of area schools and veterans organizations like Quilts of Valor Foundation. Individual wishes are also granted such as finding an old war buddy, riding in a B-17 again or throwing out a pitch a major league baseball game.

Meetings are at 10:30 a.m. the first Tuesday of every month at Dynetics-Solutions Complex Building, 1004 Explorer Blvd. NW, Huntsville.

Others can help with funding, and gifts are tax-deductible. For example, a trip to Normandy costs about $6,000 per veteran.

“We have a waiting list of Normandy veterans who want to go back,” she said. “We are working on raising funds to be able to do that.”

Gifts can be sent to Forever Young Senior Veterans of Alabama, P.O. Box 1774, Madison, AL 35758.

Since Forever Young started, those involved with the organization have realized one thing — “the longings of the human heart never grow old.”

Visit www.foreveryoungvets.org/alabama to find out more or call Chris Batté at 931-409-3812.