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Did you know when you buy the “Support Our Troops” (SOT) License Plate, you are helping Minnesota Veterans and their families?
The Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs (MDVA) distributes funds raised by the sale of SOT license plates to numerous organizations that support Minnesota Veterans and their families. Learn more about the SOT grant program on the website.
Freedom Flight was awarded a $37,500 SOT grant to purchase a mobility impaired/accessible hot air balloon basket, trailer, and other related equipment (e.g., double burner, etc.).
About Freedom Flight
Freedom Flight, Inc. is a non-profit, educational corporation established in 1989 that seeks to honor and increase the awareness of the still missing Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) issues. The organization is made up of dedicated volunteers who give their time, talent and money to fly the POW/MIA hot air balloons at various events across America and the world.
Veteran Story – Walter Mehlhaff
Service Record: “I served as a rifleman on the front line in an infantry rifle company, Co. A, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, during WW II, in six major campaigns through Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, Northern France, Central Europe and Rhineland, two amphibious landings on D-Day, H Hour, at Gela, Sicily, 10 July 1943, and Omaha Beach, Normandy, 6 June 1944.”
Camp Encounter: “I was not in any liberation forces to liberate any American Prisoner of War camps, but I was a prisoner of war, [held] by the Nazis. I was captured on 19 September 1944 at Stolberg, Germany, and interned at Stalag XII A by Limburg, Germany. Later I was transferred to Stalag III C Alt-Drewitz near Küstrin-Kietz, Germany, in a locked-up railroad box car for ten days, with no food or water. Our toilet facilities consisted of a five-gallon bucket that stayed inside, unemptied in our box car the whole trip. The only prisoners who were allowed to sit or lay down on the floor where those who were sick. The rest of us had to stand up. We experienced the full miserable inhumane prisoner of war treatment while incarcerated by the Nazis. In the stalags very little nourishment was given the prisoners. What there was, was not fit for human consumption. The prisoners were severely malnourished.”
“In January of 1945 an opportunity prevailed, thus an escape was made. In extreme cold for the next two months, life was miserable. Getting to Allied territory to avoid being recaptured, moving in and out of the fighting areas, without food, with worn out clothes, worn out shoes and very little sleep, the will of wanting to live gave me the strength to seek my freedom…”
The full story is available at the Freedom Flight website.
For more information about purchasing a SOT license plate, visit the website.
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