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- WWII vets, fans prepare for 'Honor Flight' the movie
Tribute event Saturday at Miller Park
UPDATED 10:52 PM CDT Aug 10, 2012
MILWAUKEE, Wis. -
A group of veterans and a huge crowd of fans will descend on Miller Park on Saturday to relive the past.
But more importantly, they'll receive one of the biggest thank-yous they've ever gotten.
"I wound up in combat at 17," said Rosario Consiglio, an 85-year-old WWII veteran. "But by the time I was 19 years old, I was a veteran."
Consiglio remembers the taking of Iwo Jima and the early days of the Navy SEALs. "I saw the first flags go up on Mt. Suribachi," he said.
Memories such as these inspired a documentary devoted to the Honor Flights, which provide trips for veterans to the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The documentary and its message will honor veterans such as Consiglio on a grand stage on Saturday during "Field of Honor: A Salute to the Greatest Generation." Joe Dean of Stars and Strips Honor Flight is converting Miller Park into a field of honor for the event.
Preparations were under way on Friday for a once-in-a-generation salute with music and gratitude centered on a screening of the documentary.
"The movie is really a meditation on freedom and the cost of freedom, and it kind of asks us the question, 'What are we going to do, given this legacy?'" Dean said
For Consiglio's family, the legacy of defending the country's freedom stretches three generations to his grandson, who is preparing for his second tour in Afghanistan.
"All this stuff about being a hero, the guys who are the heroes are the poor guys underneath the white markers at Arlington Cemetery," Consiglio said.
Dean said they are closing in on 34,000 tickets sold for the event, which would top a world record for the largest film screening. As few as 200 tickets remained Friday night. Lots will open at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Miller Park.
