U.S. vet from WWII is honored in Europe, showered with gratitude at age 99
Harry Humason's right arm became so fatigued from waving at the adoring crowd that the 99-year-old used his left arm to support it.
Humason sat in the passenger seat of a truck, wearing a U.S. Army jacket and a hat that listed his World War II regiment and division. As the truck inched past a synagogue, apartments and stores in Pilsen, Czech Republic, roughly 50,000 people cheered, threw lilacs from balconies and waved Czech and U.S. flags.
Humason was treated like a hero this month when he visited the Czech Republic, returning to a place he helped liberate from Nazi Germany during World War II.
He pulled thousands of dollars from his emergency fund to realize his dream trip, visiting Europe for the first time since 1945 and receiving recognition for his service there. His daughter, Linda Humason, created a GoFundMe for the trip, but only a handful of people had contributed by the time the pair flew to Europe.
That changed after the festivities in Pilsen. Humason was shocked that hundreds of grateful Czech citizens donated money to thank him for his contributions to their country. The GoFundMe reached nearly $30,000, largely in small donations, so Humason wouldn't have to pay a cent for his travels.
'I went over with the idea that it was a trip of a lifetime for me,' Humason told The Washington Post. 'And I soon discovered from the Czech people that really I was a token representative of all the veterans that had fought in World War II to liberate Europe and Czechoslovakia, and I took that very seriously.'
'I was just so moved by the people there,' he added. 'It was just amazing.'
Humason, who grew up in Alhambra, California, volunteered to join the Army in December 1943 as a teenager. He became a private first class under Gen. George S. Patton Jr., carrying a Browning automatic rifle. He was in combat for more than four months in Europe near the end of World War II, helping liberate Frankfurt, Germany, before his division was sent to a Czechoslovakia mountain range in May 1945.
Humason said he walked about 50 miles through woods, small towns and a swamp for a few days carrying playing cards that his division used to decide who would pick up tasks like digging a latrine or being on night patrol. They reached the Teplá Vltava river, where Humason saw trouble: German bunkers, an 8.8 centimeter flak gun and machine guns on the other side. He heard gunfire from Russian liberators fighting German soldiers.
'If we had to cross that river,' Humason said, 'I might not be here.'
Before they crossed, they were relieved to receive word that they should stay on the hillside. A white plane would be flying above them, carrying the German delegation that would sign a ceasefire to end the conflict. Humason said he and his division captured German soldiers who surrendered and held them at a hunting lodge with a large, fenced courtyard.
After the war, Humason received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and began building missiles and rockets at a Naval Ordnance Test Station in Pasadena, California. He met his late wife, Jean, in college and started a family. He never expected to return to Europe.
That changed in October. Jiri Kluc, a Czech historian who interviews World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors, saw photos on Facebook of Humason from a recent Puget Sound Honor Flight, a nonprofit that flies Washington state veterans to D.C.
Kluc noticed a red diamond on the front of Humason's green helmet, a symbol of the division that liberated Czechoslovakia, before it split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Kluc, 28, emailed Humason to invite him to Pilsen's liberation festival in May.
Linda Humason created a GoFundMe in December, asking for help buying flights, transportation in Europe, hotels, travel insurance, meals, tickets for public attractions and pet sitting for her two dogs and cat.
'I wanted to make sure he made this trip because it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime shot, I thought,' said Linda, 56. 'And I didn't care what it took to get him there.'
So despite only raising $2,605 by the end of April, they flew to Europe. After visiting relatives in Amsterdam for a few days, Humason and Linda arrived in Pilsen, a city in west Czech Republic, on May 1 for four days of liberation celebrations.
Veterans' family members, including Patton's grandson, George Patton Waters, were there, but Humason said he was the only U.S. veteran. Some Czechs wore makeshift U.S. uniforms and set up tents for a reproduction of the U.S. Army's encampment and a reenactment of the May 1945 liberation convoy through the city. Humason tried to attend every event, even if they were honoring divisions he wasn't a part of.
Humason participated in the convoy and delivered a speech in the city's Republic Square in front of about 5,000 people, where he said 'no one wins, everyone loses' in war.
After a few days in Pilsen, city officials arranged a 50-mile drive to Prague for Humason and Linda, and Kluc shared a link to Linda's GoFundMe on Instagram. To Kluc's surprise, Czechs helped donate $20,000, Linda's fundraising goal, within a few days. Humason said he was relieved he could reimburse the money he spent from his savings.
And his recognition was far from over.
Humason attended a concert at the Municipal House, where a symphony orchestra played famous songs from World War II movies. Before performing the theme song from the 1970 movie 'Patton,' the conductor walked off stage and toward Humason to introduce him to the crowd. Hundreds gave him a standing ovation for about a minute. After the concert, spectators approached him for photos and autographs.
Kluc's father, Aleš, drove Humason and Linda about 80 miles south to the Teplá Vltava river, where the country had established a diamond-shaped monument in honor of Humason's division. Vegetation covered the German bunkers that Humason saw across the river decades earlier.
Humason and Linda then flew to Frankfurt, where Humason was amazed to see the city clean and lively with modern buildings. When Humason was there in the spring of 1945, rubble filled the sides of the streets from demolished buildings and other structures.
Before they flew home May 13, Linda bought another suitcase to fill with about 39 pounds' worth of gifts that Humason had received.
He took home a small granite pillar that had broken off from Pilsen's Thank You America Memorial. He received dozens of challenge coins and badges, including one from the U.S. Embassy that showed a U.S. flag and a Czech flag intertwined and Pilsen police patches that officers ripped off their uniforms to give him. He received World War II books, even though he can't read the ones written in Czech. The Embassy is mailing him a U.S. flag that flew there May 6, the 80th anniversary of U.S. troops liberating Pilsen.
Linda said she and her father spent about $24,000 on the trip, but with the extra money she received on GoFundMe, she said she'll donate to her county's veterans assistance center. She's saving some money so she and her dad can begin planning another trip to Pilsen.
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