“As soon as we put the guns down, we were able to talk as men.” – Mike “Bomber” Karatsonyi, who flew with the German Luftwaffe in World War II.
It was moving day Monday for “Wings Over Wendy’s,” that raucous, lovable group of old military flyboys and aviation veterans who have been meeting for coffee and camaraderie every Monday morning for the last 16 years at the Wendy’s on Platt Avenue in West Hills.
Ron Ross, owner of the restaurant, lost his lease to an El Pollo Loco, which was willing to pay double the $10,000-a-month rent Ross was paying for the location.
It seems there’s a shortage of restaurants with drive-thru’s in the Valley, so companies looking for potential sites check when leases are coming up for renewal, and swoop in offering a lot more money, he said.
Ross owns another Wendy’s at 22611Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, and that’s where the group will meet from now on because, well, “Wings Over El Pollo Loco” doesn’t quite get it.
It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in the city room on a slow Monday morning in 2002 praying for a good column to drop in my lap when a guy named Fred “Crash” Blechman called and invited me to join him and a few of his World War II buddies at Wendy’s for the 99-cent senior lunch special — a cheeseburger, fries, and drink of your choice.
Now how can you pass up an opportunity like that? You can’t. Turns out the guys were starting a club, and they wanted my help getting the word out.
Crash, I came to find out, earned his dubious nickname for crashing five Navy fighter planes during his four years of military service. He was great on take-offs, but his landings were a little shaky.
Sitting with Crash was Mickey Epstein, a B-24 Liberator flight engineer, Ed Figueroa, a B-26 gunner, Ernie Bankey, an “ace” pilot who shot down 11 enemy planes, and Mike “Bomber” Karatsonyi, who fortunately wasn’t one of them.
Bomber flew a Messerschmitt Me-109 in the war with the Luftwaffe. After the Germans occupied Hungary, Mike was told either fly with us or go to a concentration camp.
And now here he was, 60-plus years later, having a cheeseburger, and catching up on old times with guys who wanted to shoot him out of the sky.
“No hard feelings?” I asked the guys. None, they said.
“As soon as we put the guns down, we were able to talk as men,” Bomber said. “Pilots are a special breed.”
He said he knew the war was almost over the day he took off with 40 other Luftwaffe pilots, and they were met by 1,200 American planes.
“Mike defended his country and did what he had to do. We all respected that,” said Lee Auger, who received his 16-year pin Monday as the longest member of “Wings Over Wendy’s” still living.
The column in 2002 found its way into the homes of hundreds of former aviation veterans in LA County. The next week 20 more guys showed up for lunch, then 40 more. The group grew so large there was no room for regular customers, so Ross had to move the luncheon meetings to morning breakfast, which wasn’t easy because he wasn’t open for breakfast.
But for his Wings guys, he staffed and opened his restaurant two hours early. He didn’t have to. He wasn’t making a dime on them. Coffee was free.
But Ross knew from their wives and children how important it was for these old warriors to get out of their homes for a few hours every week and hang out together swapping old war stories.
“It’s an honor to have them in my restaurant,” Ross has said many times.
Today, “Wings Over Wendy’s” has more than 300 members, of which about 100 show up for coffee and camaraderie every Monday morning. They also added a Tuesday morning meeting at the Tarzana Community and Cultural Center, 19130 Ventura Blvd from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.
All military veterans, not just aviators, are now invited to join, said the group’s president Ed Reynolds, who can be reached at (818) 884-4013 for more information.
“These meetings have become lifelines to many of the guys, especially the ones who have lost their wives and were just sitting at home vegetating,” said Art Sherman, a B-24 bombardier and intelligence officer in World War II.
“Our members come from all over Los Angeles County to finally talk about the war experiences they could never talk to their families about. It’s been a lifesaver for them, including me.”
Yeah, I got lucky that day Crash called. That 99-cent senior special turned out to be the best lunch I ever had.