Crookston native Dave Colborn will be one of 144 veterans participating in the Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota and Minnesota’s upcoming flight to Washington, D.C., Sunday, November 1, through Tuesday, November 3.
Colborn signed up for the U.S. Navy shortly before he graduated from Crookston Central High School in 1966, completed boot camp later that year, and served aboard the USS Ranger in Bremerton, WA, and at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, IL, before receiving orders to deploy to Vietnam in 1968. “I went on active duty in September of 1966. I went through boot camp and then went aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger until September of 1967. Then I was sent to school in Great Lakes, Illinois, for diesel mechanics. I spent three months there and was handed my graduation certificate from the mechanics school and orders to Vietnam on the same day. That was in 1967. I left for Vietnam in May of 1968, and returned in May of 1969, and then served in a harbor defense unit stationed out of Long Beach, California, until I was discharged in September of 1970.”
Following Colborn’s naval service, he came home to Crookston, where he worked in transportation, farming, and was a service manager for Brost Chevrolet until his retirement in 2015. He has been married to his wife, Diane, for 55 years, and they have two children, Christin Soltis and Wes Colborn, and four grandchildren.
Colborn had previously refused to sign up for the Veterans Honor Flight to ensure that as many World War II and Korean War veterans as possible could participate, but his family helped him sign up for the flight as a Christmas gift. He was very low on the list and didn’t expect to be included on a flight this year, but thanks to a generous donation, an additional flight was added, and Colborn was told earlier this month that he would be part of this upcoming flight. “I was somewhere around number 700 and something to go at originally,” Colborn explained. “A couple of flights left out of Fargo this past summer, and I don’t know who did, or who it was, but somebody or some group donated everything, all costs for this flight out of Grand Forks. It was unscheduled, and I got a call two weeks ago asking if I’d like to go, and I said yes. And it’s just kind of been a whirlwind since then. Last Sunday, we met over at the Alerus Center. Everybody that’s going on the flight, and they had an information thing, and I hope these 79-year-old legs can keep up with everything they’re going to have us do. It’s so well organized, and the people are so gracious, and they’re all volunteers. I mean, it’s unbelievable what they do for us.”
The Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota and Minnesota is a non-profit organization that provides free flights to Washington, D.C., for senior and terminally ill veterans to see the memorials dedicated in their honor, as a thank-you for their service. The group conducts flights in the spring and fall each year and holds fundraisers throughout the year to cover the costs of the trip for these veterans.
The trip itinerary is full of activities and sites for the veterans to visit, including the World War II and Korean War Memorials, the Vietnam War Memorial Wall, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Colborn is looking forward to seeing these memorials and experiencing this moment with other veterans. “I’m looking forward to everything,” said Colborn. “I looked at the weather out there, and it looks a little soggy for a couple days while we’re there. But I’m looking forward to several parts of it. Obviously, the Vietnam Wall. I mean, I’ve seen the traveling one, but I’ve never seen the true one. The naval exhibition, obviously, because I was in the Navy. We do get a chance to go there for the changing of the guard at Arlington. I’m truly looking forward to that, and just in general, the experience and being with other people that experienced what I did.”
