Three Cape Vincent brothers, in a first for Honor Flight Syracuse, ready for Washington, D.C.

Sept. 30--Tweet

CAPE VINCENT -- Three brothers, born in the same house here where one of them still lives, will be honored for their service to the country on Saturday with an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C.

Cape Vincent American Legion Post 832 raised funds for the brothers -- James L., 84, Harold L., 87, and Philip R. Wiley, 83 -- to join the Honor Flight, through the organization's Syracuse chapter.

James and Harold live in Cape Vincent. Philip lives in Spencerport, Monroe County, but spends summers in Cape Vincent.

The nonprofit Honor Flight Network, now in its 11th year, has chapters across the country, including the one in Syracuse, which began in 2012. Its task is to pay tribute to veterans by taking them to see and reflect at the nation's war memorials in Washington.

At James Wiley's home on West Lake Street in the village, the three brothers on Monday morning sat down and discussed their service and the upcoming trip.

They are humble about being selected for an Honor Flight.

"We don't really deserve all of the honors," Harold Wiley said.

Randy Flath, president of Honor Flight Syracuse, would disagree.

"They all served," Mr. Flath said Tuesday in a phone interview. "In their minds, they didn't really do much, which blows my mind. They did what they had to do and when they came home, they dropped their bags in a corner, picked up their lives and went on like nothing was out of the ordinary for them."

Saturday's trip will be Syracuse Honor Flight's eighth mission. Since 2012, it has taken about 500 veterans to Washington.

Taking three brothers, Mr. Flath said, will be a first for the Syracuse chapter, which serves the Central New York area and regions north.

"We've had two brothers, but never three," he said.

Harold, James and Phillip were among the eight children born to Leonard A. Wiley and his wife, Emily (Blume) Wiley, who wed in 1916 at St. Vincent de Paul's Church in the village. Leonard, postmaster for the village, died at the age of 50 in 1940.

Emily Wiley married Joseph L. Mason in 1949. She died at the age of 69 in 1960.

The three brothers are the only surviving children of Leonard and Emily. The other children were Anna, Donald, John, Charles and Mary Louise.

Donald and Charles were World War II veterans. John F. was a Catholic priest who served in Norwood and Mary Louise was a nun and supervisor at Mercy Hospital, Watertown.

Father Wiley was 63 when he died in 1984. Sister Mary Louise, the oldest of the Wiley children, died at age 92 in 2008. Philip is the youngest Wiley. Eleven years separate the youngest and oldest sibling.

Donald A. Wiley served as co-pilot on a B-24 Liberator bomber in World War II and made 35 missions over enemy territory while stationed in England. Like his father, he became village postmaster. He died at the age of 57 in 1979.

Charles A. Wiley, also was in England during World War II, serving with Air Corps ground personnel. He died at the age of 58 in 1977.

Anna E., who married Francis A. Sullivan of Rochester, died at the age of 86 in 2011 in Fairport, Monroe County.

James Wiley said American Legion Post 832 officials contacted him and his two brothers and asked if they were interested in the Honor Flight.

"They've been working hard," James said of the Legion. "They raised money by putting on fish fries every Friday night to finance it. Everything is paid for."

The post has scheduled at 11 a.m. today a send-off luncheon for the brothers. School students are expected to line the streets later as a bus makes it way through the village, carrying the brothers to Syracuse, where they will spend the night at the Airport Inn before departing to Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning. They will return that evening.

----Here's where the three Honor Flight-bound Wiley brothers served:

Harold Wiley

He joined the service in September of 1946, a few months after graduating from Cape Vincent High School. After basic training at Fort Bragg, N.C., he was shipped to occupied Japan, arriving on Christmas Eve, 1946. He was 17 years old.

"It was a very lonesome, homesick time, I tell you," Harold said. "It was my first Christmas away from home."

He said the defeated Japanese treated the American soldiers very well.

"There were some Japanese up in the mountains who didn't know the war was over," he said. "We would let them know what was going on."

He said the most memorable event for him while in Japan was helping civilians during a major flood.

A September 1946 story in the Chicago Tribune reported that American troops rescued thousands of Japanese from the Kanto plains east of Tokyo following a typhoon, which also caused landslides. The storm killed about 3,000 Japanese citizens, the Kyodo news agency reported.

"We went around in boats and rescued people from rooftops," Harold said.

He was honorably discharged from the Army on July 4, 1948.

James Wiley

He was drafted into the Army on July 9, 1952. He did his basic training at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., where he was trained as a records clerk. He was then shipped to West Germany. In 1949, Germany was divided into west and east zones.

"I ended up at Nuremberg working at headquarters, keeping track of our officers' records in the Second Armed Calvary headquarters," James said. "I did that for just over a year."

Nuremberg, captured by the American 7th Army in April of 1945, was the site of the International Military Tribunal for Nazi crimes from November 1945 to October 1946.

James said he was treated well by the Germans.

"We had no problems," he said. "We got along with them. And they liked the money that was kicking around."

He was honorably discharged on June 12, 1954.

Philip Wiley

While working for Kodak in Rochester in 1952, Philip and some co-workers, also from Cape Vincent, signed up for the Navy Reserve.

Later that year, he was sent to the U.S. Naval Training Center at Bainbridge, Md., for basic training. He was then sent to Norfolk, Va., where his ship, the USS Lake Champlain, was docked.

"We had to shake the ship down," Philip said.

According to a U.S. Navy news release, the ship was mothballed in 1947 but "reactivated and modernized" in 1952. It moored at Yokosuka, Japan, in June of 1953.

Philip, who was a firefighter and an electrician on the ship, said planes from the USS Lake Champlain were sent into the Korean War (1950-1953) theater from Japanese waters.

"I was over there when the Korean War ended," Philip said. "So they sent us all home."

He was honorably discharged in 1954.

Mr. Flath, at Honor Flight Syracuse, said the number of World War II veterans available for Washington, D.C., trips are dwindling.

"The youngest of the World War II veterans are in their late 80s, or their early 90s," Mr. Flath said. "It's starting to be a little bit of a challenge finding ones who are able, and willing, to travel."

He said Honor Flight Syracuse does have a nursing staff.

"But a lot of veterans are nervous about leaving their homes or their families," he said.

On Saturday's flight, Mr. Flath said, there will be a total of about 80 veterans, including 40 who served in WW II and about 35 who served in Korea.

----After their service, James and Harold operated a Cape Vincent grocery store, Wiley Brothers Red and White Store. A fire destroyed it in 1986.

Harold then went into the insurance business, retiring at the age of 82.

James became a real estate professional, which he still works at.

Philip, before retiring, went back to work at Kodak in Rochester after his service.

The brothers said qualities of their parents, which included "great faith," helped lead to their success and the success of their deceased siblings.

They said their mom was "firm, but fair."

"We would be downtown hanging out, and we would hear my mom's ring hit the window," said James, who was 11 when his father died. "She had that wedding ring and would knock on the window with it. We knew it was time to come home."

"We're pretty lucky," Harold said, as he counted off each of their ages at 84, 85 and himself at 87. "And we're still going str..." -- at this, he hesitated, not finishing a word and backing up a bit:

"We're still going halfway strong," he said, laughing.

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