The Wisecrack Warriors (WCW), a group of Veterans associated with the Lone Star Honor Flight Veterans Group, are a bunch of wisecracks that use laughter as a way of dealing with the pressures that life throws at them. The Veterans Group as a whole meets weekly on Wednesday mornings for fellowship, breakfast, and to just joke around. Veterans who attend each week and suffer from PTSD due to conflicts that can’t be filed away, gather and just talk, which helps them over time with reports of shedding therapists along with a healthier mindset. The Wisecrack Warriors, the jokesters of the Veterans Group, in time migrated to their own table, and built a code between themselves of using laughter to help uplift not only themselves, but other Veterans in the group. Now their mission is to reach out to Veterans across Montgomery County, Texas and The Nation. They want to instill their spirit into other outgoing Veterans to form their own chapters and spread joy and hope, not only with their own bands, but spread the joy with visits to senior facilities or private homes to help with some needed repairs.
This past week, the Wisecrack Warriors visited the Live Oak Senior Center in Montgomery. They met with a small group of Veterans who resided in the facility, and each had no idea that each other was a Veteran. Everyone was a little shy at first, but it was no time until the Veterans began talking and trading stories. One could see the elation in the Live Oak Veterans’ demeanors that they were being celebrated, and how much it meant to each of them. That is the idea behind the WCWs, with their goal of bringing attention to Veterans, many who think themselves long forgotten, but the truth they should be lauded daily for their service to Our Nation.
Each Live Oak Veteran had a story, with each serving overseas in some form or fashion. 93 year-old Dan Lamb, served in Korea following his graduation from college in 1952, and was a company clerk, which did not keep him as safe from enemy action as others might think, since anyone in a combat zone is fair game in the arena of harm. Tom Cook, 96, served in Korea in 1950-1951, and worked in an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, or EOD, meaning that he went around blowing things up. He reported not being harassed by the enemy that much, but even small harassments can be devastating.
86 year-old Paul Opanowitz, served at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the 101st Airborne Division, and had 27 airborne parachute jumps from airplanes, before their mission changed primarily to helicopters in the 1960s. Paul loved each of his jumps. “It was a rush,” he said. Following Fort Campbell, Paul was stationed in France, where he worked in ordinance logistics, and enjoyed owning his own car, making routine trips to Paris. John Kin, 96, had an interesting story; also serving in Korea as a Field Artillery Forward Observer. He was born in China, and was brought to Brownsville, Texas in 1936 by his father, a cook, when he was six years old. He adjusted well in south Texas and became fluent in Spanish, but he doesn’t speak a lick of Chinese. During his time in Korea, Kin was mistaken for Japanese and Navajo Indian, and even if you look at him in his cap, you’d think he had Hispanic features.
John and each of the Veterans at Live Oak were grateful for the visit. They are truly fascinating characters and a joy to visit with, and the WCWs look forward to another visit in the future.
For more info, or to request a visit to a facility: wisecrackwarriorssociety.org