Earl and Darrell Bushnell: Shared Experiences for Father and Son

By Charlie Souhrada, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Earl Bushnell, age 96 and his son, Darrell, age 72 are in for an incredible ride. They will be the first father and son duo in Honor Flight Chicago’s history as part of the organization’s 100th flight to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, April 13. Adding to the experience, Karen Galey, one of Earl’s daughters, and Darrell’s sister, will serve as a guardian, making the trip a family affair. 

Earl’s story begins August 19, 1925, when he was born in Big Rock, Illinois. Growing up on the family farm, he learned the value of family and hard work. “We all worked hard,” Earl remembers of his father, mother and two brothers and three sisters. “There was always something to do, and I tried to do every job there was.” 

Earl entered the Army on November 28, 1945, to get over a bad breakup with a girl. Darrell shares, “My dad joined before the end of the war. By the time he was fully trained, the war had ended, and he was sent to Germany to help clean up the mess and try to keep control.” 

Earl remembers the 14-day trip to Europe aboard a troopship was terrible. “It stormed all the way and when we landed in England, we were put on a train riding in boxcars. It took us four days to get to our unit in Germany.” While stationed in Germany, Earl became an MP and attended radio operator school. “When I started out, I got all the dirty jobs like helping to collect prisoners of war. Later I volunteered to be secretary for the company.” His hard work paid off with a promotion to the rank of E-5 Sergeant followed by a full discharge after 18 months of service. 

With his military service behind him, Earl returned to Big Rock where he took over the family farm from his older brother, Fred, while also working at a grocery store in Aurora. There, he met his first wife, Erelene. The pair began their own family starting with Darrell on August 13, 1949, followed by daughters Barbara, Pam, and Karen. 

“It was a good life and a pretty typical childhood,” Darrell remembers. “Dad and mom were always working hard in the fields, and mom filled the basement with every type of preserved can, bottle or type of food she could. We were very self-sufficient.” 

As the eldest and only boy, Darrell remembers lots of farm work and very little idle time during the day. But he fondly remembers his mother reading to them every night, which turned the family into avid readers. “I especially loved the Tom Swift books,” he says. “I think that’s what got me into science fiction and computers. My mom was a beautiful woman.”

After graduating from Big Rock High School in 1967, Darrell enrolled in computer science classes in Chicago and took the Burlington Route train from Aurora to the city every day. “The commute was nice. I could sit on the train and read the newspaper or catch up on current events. To me, that was a big deal!” 

Darrell remembers the late ‘60s were highly divisive times. “People were completely ‘for’ or ‘against’ the war. Everybody had an opinion. But I knew that I’d be drafted soon so I enlisted to take control and improve my options.” Ironically, in April, 1968, two weeks after entering Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri, Darrell received his draft notice. 

By enlisting, Darrell committed to three years of service, as opposed to two, but he got to choose his military occupational specialty (MOS) and picked missile electronics training. “That was a big deal back then because it involved working on computer systems and you had to know electronics. I figured that was an excellent choice for me.” 

After several months of training on the Chaparral missile launcher at Ft. Bliss, Texas, Darrell was shipped to the Army Airbase in Giebelstadt, Germany in late 1969 for additional Chaparral training. “I enjoyed that part of my service,” he says. “There are a couple of things you learn in the Army: humility and that you could damn well do anything, given enough pressure and the right tools to perform the job. They trained us well.”  

Darrell explains that during his time in Germany, tensions in the Middle East were rising and his company thought they were going to be shipped there to settle things down. “Vietnam wasn’t the only thing going on at the time and we knew it.” Fortunately for Darrell, the call never came, and his discharge papers arrived in April, 1971 as expected. He returned home to Big Rock carrying an E-5 rank, the same classification as his father before him. “I stayed for a few months, but I was a different man after three years in the service. It was time to move on and start my life.” 

Darrell moved to Indianapolis and used the GI Bill to enroll in a technical training school. He then parlayed this fundamental training into a career in computers, picking up undergraduate and graduate degrees along the way – all thanks to his GI benefits. “I owe it all to the Army. I wanted to wring as much out of those benefits as I could!”

In 1974, Darrell met his wife, Amy, while working in Milwaukee. The couple is now entering their 48th year together. 

Meanwhile, back in Big Rock, Earl continued to work the farm and enjoyed growing sweet corn to sell out of the back of a pickup truck. In the late ‘80s, Erelene passed away after celebrating the couple’s 43rd anniversary. Over time, Earl met a teacher, Mary Ellen, and she became his second wife. “I asked her to marry me, and she told me to go get the rings before I changed my mind!” Earl and Mary Ellen enjoyed spending time in Arizona during the winter and returning home to Illinois in the spring. Sadly, Mary Ellen passed away during the couple’s 25th year of marriage. In 2021, Earl moved to Bickford Senior Living in Oswego, where he stays tuned to current events and enjoys participating in the center’s social events. 

After taking early retirement from a role as Vice President of Financial Operations for CIT Corporation, Darrell and Amy moved to Nicaragua to build a life in a country that was “different enough to be interesting, but not so different to be bizarre.” The couple has lived in Nicaragua for 16 years now. Amy has an art gallery studio where she teaches expatriates, locals and tourists how to paint in watercolor, acrylics and oils. After becoming familiar with Nicaragua and spending so much time helping others move to the country, Darrell wrote a book on their adventures, No Regrets. They are active in a variety of charitable functions for expats and locals. 

“While the Army was not the most fun three years of my life, it gave me skills and better values,” Darrell says. “Early on, when I first got out, I regretted the time I lost. Later, I came to realize that it was time well spent!”  

Thank you for your service, Earl, and Darrell! We know the experience of your shared Honor Flight will be time well spent too!