Kent resident, Korean War veteran takes Honor Flight

During a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Kent resident John Sutherland Jr. received the red carpet treatment.

The Korean War veteran was one of more than 50 World War II and Korean veterans to get an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., from Oct. 15-17, thanks to Puget Sound Honor Flight – a nonprofit organization dedicated to transporting Western Washington veterans to the nation’s capital to visit and reflect at the memorials honoring their service and sacrifices.

Sutherland, 87, contacted Honor Flight several years ago after seeing a commercial for it on television. He forgot he contacted the organization until he got a call about three months ago asking if he was still interested.

“I thought it would be kind of nice to meet some other guys and go back and see some of those memorials,” he said.

Sutherland once visited the nation’s capital for a business trip but didn’t have time to take in the sights.

The veterans left Sea-Tac Airport early on Oct. 15 with a send off from the Coast Guard.

During the trip, the group visited the sights of Washington, D.C., including the Korean and Vietnam memorials, the memorials for each military branch and the World War II memorial where the veterans were honored with a ceremony.

“Everywhere you go people stop and acknowledge you,” said Sutherland’s daughter, Louise Vittitow, who accompanied her father on the trip.

Sutherland said his favorite sight was the Marine Corps Memorial.

“The pictures don’t do it justice,” Vittitow said.

The tour also included a visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

“The changing of the guard was impressive,” Sutherland said.

On the return flight, flight attendants handed out letters to the veterans from their families and school children thanking them for their service.

“They have mail call just like you would when you are serving,” Vittitow said.

After the plane landed at Sea-Tac, the veterans were paired with a service member from their military branch who escorted them to the airport’s atrium near baggage claim, where their families waited. Members of the Patriot Guard Riders of Washington State lined the walkway holding American flags as the veterans made their way to their families.

Sutherland said the trip made him feel appreciated.

“I didn’t feel that it was earned,” he said. “I hadn’t earned all of those accolades. If I hadn’t done what I was supposed to do they would have put me in the slammer. But, here they are, happy that I had done it. It was very impressive that they were interested in what I had done.”

Sutherland appreciated the dedication of the Honor Flight volunteers.

“I have never been in such a well organized program with so many people,” he said. “None of them are getting paid to do it.… You can’t praise them too high.”

Since its creation in 2013, Puget Sound Honor Flight has taken more than 600 World War II and Korean War veterans to Washington, D.C. The organization plans to expand to include Vietnam Veterans soon.

For more information about Puget Sound Honor Flight, visit pugetsoundhonorflight.org.

Military service

Sutherland comes from a family of veterans, his father, John Sutherland Sr., served in World Wars I and II and the Korean War. Sutherland’s son, John Sutherland III, and grandson Andy Healey served in the marines.

While attending Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Ore., Sutherland decided he wanted to be an electrical engineer and signed up for the Naval Reserve Training Officer Corps to help pay for his education at the University of Washington.

In the summers while in college, Sutherland trained with the Navy and did two, six-week tours on the USS Missouri and the USS Toledo.

After his graduation from UW in 1952, Sutherland was assigned to the USS Talladega – a Haskell-class attack transport ship. In January 1953, the ship headed to the Korean theater, where it spent the next year transporting troops. Sutherland was a junior division officer and later served as a coding officer and a cryptographic officer.

“Two or three of us were drawn to do that and we would decode messages,” he said.

Sutherland received a United Nations medal ribbon and and Korean ribbon with two battle stars on it for his service during the war.

When his ship was docked in Japan, Sutherland was able to visit his father who was serving in Japan as a reservist.

“I made arrangements to go up there to visit him for three or four days…” he said. “I had a real nice time with him.”

Sutherland said he is grateful for people like his father who served in reserves.

“The reserves were the one who won the war,” he said. “If we didn’t have all the reserve people and all the officers, we wouldn’t have had anybody to win World War II. It took them to do it.”

In December 1953, Sutherland got orders to go to U.S. Naval Station Tongue Point in Astoria, Ore. He spent a year and half there as a records officer.

The base had about 100 of old ships tied up on a pier that the government had mothballed and sealed up.

“They took all of the records off of the ships and they brought them over to the hut where we had our offices,” Sutherland said. “There were two chief petty officers and they took care of all that. They had a couple of dozen guys that just made sure all of the records were off the ship.”

After his three years of service, Sutherland got out of the Navy and pursued a career in electrical engineering. He worked for various companies including Boeing, North American Aviation in Columbus, Ohio, and Honeywell in St. Paul, Minnesota. He got a job at Lockheed Corporation in California but decided to see if there were any positions open at Lockheed in Seattle.

While there he ran into a man he had served with on the USS Talladega.

“We talked and I told him, ‘I got a job at Lockheed down in California and I don’t want to go down there. I want to do something up here,’” Sutherland said. “He said, ‘What do you do.’ I said, “I’ve got a UW degree. I am an electrical engineer.’ He said. ‘We just fired our electrical engineer. You want this job.’ I said ‘Yeah, I do.’”

Sutherland was hired on the spot and worked for Lockheed for a year and half before he was laid off.

He worked any jobs he could, from driving a bus to janitorial work, and received retraining from a professional engineering group.

“One day, one of the guys came back and said, “Sutherland, I just came back from the airport looking for a job out there. They got a job but I don’t want it, but I think you would like it,’” Sutherland recalled.

Sutherland was hired as the superintendent of electrical systems for Sea-Tac and oversaw electricians and the electronics department for 25 years until he retired.

Vittitow admires her father’s dedication to his family and country.

“You can tell he would do anything to support his family,” she said. “There are lot of people who don’t do that.”

Sutherland and his wife, Ruth, have three children, six grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

John Sutherland Jr. and his daughter Louise Vittitow pose by the Marine Corps Memorial in Washington, D.C. during a recent trip through Puget Sound Honor Flight. Sutherland, a Korean War veteran, said the Marine Corps Memorial was his favorite sight to take in during the trip. COURTESY PHOTO