By Colleen O’Connor
The Denver Post

Lew Weltzer, a survivor of Pearl Harbor, and his wife, Lyna, are shown in Oahu

Reaching out to help a veteran of Pearl Harbor was the least the niece of seven World War II veterans said she could do.

Lew Weltzer, a U.S. Marine and one of an estimated 4,800 survivors of the battle at Pearl Harbor, served on the USS Pennsylvania from 1941 to 1945 and was stationed at the Hawaii base when it was hit Dec. 7, 1941.

Recently, he flew from his home in Arvada to Texas to attend a wedding. His 85-year- old wife, Lyna, also a veteran of the Marine Corps, flew out with him.

But after the wedding, Weltzer — who turns 91 next month — became ill with pneumonia and was taken to a hospital in Dallas, where he is in intensive care.

"Our big desire is to get him back to Colorado at the earliest possible, safe time," said his son, Jim, who lives in Centennial and is at the hospital with his parents.

When Deborah Hileman heard about Weltzer from a co-worker at Emergency Medical Services Corp. in Greenwood Village, who had heard his story on Denver radio station KOA-850 AM, she said she knew exactly what to do.

"It really touched my heart," she said. "It thought it was a wonderful opportunity to help a very deserving World War II vet."

After Weltzer is released from the hospital, he will still be too weak to fly home via commercial airlines, so EMS will provide "bed-to-bed" transportation for free.

The company’s American Medical Response subsidiary will pick him up from the hospital and take him to the Dallas airport. Its Air Ambulance Specialists Inc. subsidiary will then fly him to Colorado on a private plane that provides specialized medical care during transport.

Another of the company’s ambulances will pick him up at the Denver airport and take him home to Arvada.

"We’re honored to be able to provide assistance to a veteran," Hileman said. "I had six uncles who served in the Army and the Navy and an aunt who was a WAVE."

Two years ago, Weltzer returned to Pearl Harbor for the first time since the war.

Along with his wife and other Colorado World War II veterans who served in the Pacific theater, he traveled to Hawaii as a guest of the Greatest Generations Foundation, a Denver-based nonprofit that takes veterans back to visit the battlefields where they fought.

"We were the first ship to open fire as Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes started their attack," he said at the time.

The group observed a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the exact time that the Japanese attack started 66 years before.

But for Weltzer, the most important part of the journey was finally getting closure on the death of his best friend, a boy who grew up in his hometown and was killed in the attack on the USS Arizona.

"He went back to the USS Arizona Memorial," said his son, "and touched the name of his friend."

Weltzer faces a long, slow recovery from pneumonia, but his family is hopeful.

"When it comes to survival," his son said, "he’s a fighter."