Robert Drees, 83, of Teutopolis, served in the U.S. Army from Oct. 29, 1963 to Oct. 29, 1965 after he and his twin brother volunteered for the draft. In 2021, the twins got the idea to take an Honor Flight trip together with their two other brothers, who served in the National Guard during the time the twins were in the army.
The brothers volunteered to serve because their names were going to be called soon anyway. After eight weeks of basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Robert was shipped to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, to join the 87th Engineers. After some time there, he accidentally ran into his twin brother, Raymond. Neither brother knew the other was there.
From June through August 1964, the Army had Robert work in Anchorage, Alaska, and during one weekend, he and some friends traveled to the North Pole.
“It wasn’t that far away,” said Drees. “We went just to see what was there because it was the North Pole.”
Shortly after returning to Virginia, Drees was shipped off to Vietnam for a year. He says he considers himself lucky because he didn’t have to shoot at anyone, and nobody shot at him.
“It was a good experience. I truly enjoyed every day of it. There’s things I’ve seen that I’ll never see again in my life,” said Drees. “Just to get away from home to see how the other half of the world lives and how they operate and doing things in service where you can’t do as a civilian. It was an honor.”
Since serving his country, Drees went to Washington D.C. once 30 years ago as a chaperone for his daughter’s school trip. He and his brothers wanted to take an Honor Flight before one of them passed, so four years ago, they decided to make the trip.
The guardians who accompany the veterans take photos throughout the day, and so one of Drees’ nieces – Sarah Drees – made a book out of them.
“It’s not worth a dime, but it’s worth a million dollars,” said Drees, while flipping through the book of memories.
“You’ll never guess how that picture was taken,” said Drees, as he pointed to a picture of the four brothers at the Air Force Memorial. “She [a guardian] laid down on the ground and had a camera… she said, ‘OK, now you guys: one, two, three, four in a square like that. You all stick your heads over like this, and I’ll take your picture.’ So she was laying on the floor, shot straight up and got our mugs.”
Drees said some of his grandsons had the opportunity during a school trip to carry the wreath and flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He enjoyed seeing the memorial again since seeing it decades prior.
When the group traveled to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the brothers found the name Nicholas E. Thoele since they knew him growing up, and they stenciled his name into a piece of paper.
“They can identify where these kids are at on the wall because… you could stand there a week and never find your name,” said Drees. “It’s big. Really big.”
When the flight arrived back in Marion, each of the brothers’ wives were there to greet them with a warm welcome with signs, along with nieces, nephews and other family members.
Although Drees didn’t have a favorite memorial or part of the Honor Flight, he thought it was a good thank-you for his and other veterans’ service to the country.
“I’m glad somebody took these pictures and made a book out of it. It’s a good remembrance,” said Drees. “It was an honor to be there.”