AUSTIN, Texas — Editor’s Note: KVUE is kicking off a new partnership with Honor Flight Austin. The organization takes military veterans on special trips to Washington D.C.
For many of them, it’s the first or *only* time they’re able to visit the memorials honoring those who died in the wars in which they served. We’ve covered news about Honor Flight for years and we’re adding to that: A commitment to bringing you the stories of the heroes among us and helping to raise money to support more flights.
This month, we tell the story of Lew Griffith, who’s been on two Honor Flight missions.
A hundred years of memories line the walls of Lew Griffith’s house near Austin: Framed photographs of family members and displays of memorabilia from the time when Lew served our nation during World War II.
Lew, who grew up in Corpus Christi and moved to Austin as a young man, turned 101 years old a few months ago. Many of the memories from the pictures on the walls of his home come from a time when Lew, like so many other Americans, risked his life to defend his country.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Lew was still a teenager when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air, throwing the U.S. into a war to fight on two fronts, in the Pacific and in Europe.
Lew was playing football in Pease Park when he heard the news about the surprise attack.
“We were out there playing sandlot football, and a lady came running out there. ‘How dare you, how dare you out here playing when we’re at war,’” Lew recalled.
Like so many Americans, after Pearl Harbor was struck, Lew volunteered for military service. Following his training as a pilot, he ended up flying 42 missions in B25 bomber, 5000 miles away from his Texas home.
“We were medium bombers. We didn’t do carpet bombing like the heavy bombers did,” Lew said. “Our job mainly was to keep the Germans from resupplying the Africa Corp, which was in Italy.”
Lew says they occasionally could see and hear flak being fired at their plane, but they always managed to return to their airbase safely.
After the war, Lew’s life in the military faded into the background as he married, earned an engineering degree from the University of Texas and raised a family.
His story might have ended there, until Honor Flight Austin reached out to him.
Honor Flight is a nonprofit organization that honors and thanks America’s older military veterans, flying them to the nation’s capital to see the memorials that commemorate their service.
In December 2024, Lew was on a special Honor Flight mission that brought him to the White House to commemorate the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
“When we got to the Austin airport preparing to board our plane, all down the hall people were clapping because the Honor Flight volunteers had told them who we were,” Lew said. “It made you remember back when America had so much pride with what we were doing, and we had a lot of pride.”
Since 2005, the Honor Flight network has helped make it possible for more than 200,000 veterans from all services to visit Washington and other memorial sites.
Lew still lives on his own and drives his minivan to run errands. So, you may be wondering, how does Lew remain so active and healthy at age 101?
“It’s really easy,” Lew said. “Just pick folks with good genes.”