Some say "a picture is worth a thousand words," but not to U.S. Army veteran Arch Middleton. For this Laddonia resident, seeing the WWII Memorial with his "own eyes" offered more than any photograph could ever depict.
Middleton was the fourth Mexico-area veteran to travel to the nation's capital to visit the recently unveiled World War II Memorial as a guest of the Central Missouri Honor Flight. He was one of 35 to take the May 19th flight.
"I've been many places, but I had never traveled to Washington, D.C., so I didn't really know what to expect," the 83-year-old Middleton told The Ledger shortly after his trip. "But afterwards, I was really appreciative of the things we saw, and glad I had gone."
Middleton was drafted in the Army in April 1944, and shipped to France after D-Day. On Thanksgiving morning, around sunrise, Nov. 24, 1944, he was wounded by German gunfire. The three bullets that tore through his body – one in his upper left arm, a second in his left lung, and another that entered his neck, exited his cheek, and paralyzed the left side of his face – earned him a medical discharge with a Purple Heart from the European Theater of Operations on Sept. 15, 1945.
So going on this trip, to him, meant everything – and in many ways, made him very proud.

A hero’s welcome, and take-off
"This was a trip that he had been wanting to take, but hadn't been able to up until this point," said Janie Bostick, Middleton's daughter, a registered nurse who accompanied him on the flight. "I think it made him feel really special when the people at the airports came up to him, shaking his hand, and thanking him for his service.
"And, it made me happy that I could be a part of it with him."
The two started their day at 2 a.m., and were on a bus departing Columbia by 4 a.m. Five-and-a-half-hours later they landed in Baltimore, ate lunch, and were on the road again – destination Washington, D.C., where the site show would began.
"It was an hours drive to Washington, and the weather that day was nice and sunny, and 72 degrees," Middleton recalled.
En route they passed the Washington Nationals ballpark, the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln monuments, the Korean, Iwo Jima and Vietnam memorials, the U.S. Capitol and the backside of the White House – leaving the best for last.

At the memorial
To some, the memorial's size might be intimidating with its 56 granite columns, and pair of 43 feet tall arched pavilions that surround a large fountain, called the Rainbow Pool. But to Middleton, "It was quite something."
The fact that it is oval, and has pillars for each state as they were admitted into the Union, really interested the Missouri native. And the Field of Stars on the Freedom Wall, amazed him even more.
"Seeing all those stars, and knowing what they stood for, is what stood out the most to me," Middleton said, as he described the wall of 4,000 gold stars; each one representing 1,000 soldiers killed, and symbolizing each family's sacrifice and loss. "What it says to me is that all of them were recognized; and no one was left out."

The Arlington Cemetery
Seeing that many stones lined up atop the hills, was "breathtaking," and stretched "as far as the eye could see," Middleton recalled. And, as they drove deeper into the valleys that encompass the 624 acres, he realized that even though more than 300,000 people have been laid to rest in the military cemetery, there is still more room.
Middleton had only been with his unit 18 months before being wounded and sent home – which allowed for very few friendships. Ten months of his time was spent in six different hospitals, he recalls.
His job as an 18-year-old, fresh-out-of-high school graduate, was an infantry ammunition bearer for the running automatic rifleman, and one of the first to be shot.
"I was the second one that I knew of that was wounded," Middleton recollected. There may have been more, he doesn't know. "By the time they sent me back down to my division, they (his unit) had deployed, and I never saw anyone I knew or remembered again."
Though Arlington Cemetery is not his choice for burial, Middleton said he respects the mass of fallen servicemen, whose remains lie there.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
This is likely a place that draws the most emotion from veterans, who come to visit from all over the world. The dignity and reserve shown, are respected by all.
"If you've never seen it before, it's something different," Middle-ton said. "The 'Old Guard' paces 21 steps past the cript, then turns, pauses for 21 seconds, and then turns again, this time moving his rifle on his shoulder.
"And then, after a moment, he marches 21 steps, and repeats the process."

The journey home
Coming home after the war, was something Middleton had pondered, and even questioned if he'd ever be able to do, as he rode that troop train out of Laddonia on "4-44" – which stands for the month and year he was drafted.
But he did.
After recovering from his wounds, Middleton enrolled in college, got his accounting degree and took a job with what was then called the A.P. Green Fire Brick Co., where he worked for seven years. He saved up and later purchased the family farm, located one mile north of Scott's Corner, where he and his wife, Marilyn, raised their three children. In 1990, he retired from the Postal Service, where he had worked as a rural mail carrier in the Laddonia vicinity for 15 years.
When asked what he thought of his Honor Flight, Middleton noted it was "a long day," but one he "enjoyed very much."
"Even though we had been up for more than 20 hours or so, I was still rearing to go," the nearly 84-year-old veteran said. Some of the most enjoyable moments of the trip he noted, were the time spent with his daughter – who Middleton said "nearly worked her tail off" caring for him, and two other veterans on the trip, and the new acquaintances he met along the way.
One of the veterans that Middleton shared a row of seats with was retired Mexico mail carrier Dale Sumpter, who now lives in Columbia. With a career and service time in common, the two had many stories to swap during their flights to and from Washington.
Sumpter's story is much like Middletons. He entered the service in the fall of 1944, and served with the 37th Infantry in the South Pacific, mostly on Luzon. On June 3, 1945, he was injured and received a medical discharge with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He still has shrapnel in his leg.