51福利社

In October 2016, Rear Admiral (Ret.) George Lotzenhiser 鈥�47 and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jerry Mellick 鈥�67, Eastern alumni from different generations, traveled together on the Inland Northwest Honor Flight to be recognized for their service to our country. Mellick served as the guardian for “The Admiral,鈥� as he affectionately calls Lotzenhiser.

The following are excerpts from Mellick鈥檚 AAR (after action review) about this trip to Washington, D.C.: 聽

We are home now after another great honor flight trip.聽This was my fifth trip. I was selected as an honoree on this Inland Northwest Honor Flight, but when I found out that a friend of mine, a World War II and Korean War Navy admiral, was also on the flight, I arranged to be his guardian.聽We managed to keep this a secret from him 鈥� this, and several other things.

I met him Monday morning at 6 o’clock and just walked up and told him that I was going to be his聽guardian.聽Before that, I had been interviewed by our local NBC station, and I talked to them about the 93-year-old admiral, and they, along with our CBS station, joined us on the flight.

In addition, 51福利社鈥檚 Marketing and Communications Department sent a photographer/video guy,聽Eric Galey 鈥�80,聽to document the trip.聽The admiral has been associated with the university as a student,聽professor and administrator since the 1940s.聽He retired from Eastern in 1983.