DOLLAR BILL PULL DOWN

Johnson Creek Tavern Honors Beaufort Veterans

story by KATE HAMILTON-PARDEE     photos by SUSAN DELOACH

With an incredible small-town vibe, delicious food, and a sparkling view of the Harbor River, you must be sitting on the deck at Johnson Creek Tavern (JCT). JCT is one of the truly local and authentic spots on the coast of St. Helena Island. When entering the restaurant, you will find a surprising and unique display of thousands of dollar bills stapled to the ceilings and walls—many revealing personal messages scribed in magic marker.

Owners of Johnson Creek Tavern are Coleman White and Jay Lloyd. They were long-term real estate partners, and in 2009 they decided to buy JCT, which was a local fish camp at the time, along with the other buildings on the property. Working hard with their wives Andree Lloyd and Cinta White by their side, they decided to keep the restaurant with the same look and feel. Good food was a priority, and the dollar bills were already there. In the old boat days, crews would come in and leave money on the walls, so they could use them before they got their paychecks from their boat jobs, it became a “Bar Bank.” Future customers joined in and has now become a can’t-miss attraction for locals and tourists to leave their message on a dollar bill hung at JCT.

Operation Pull Down
In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit, Coleman and Jay decided to have a “Dollar Bill Pull Down” to benefit hurricane victims. A few years later, the dollar bills had covered the walls again, so the second “Pull Down” was scheduled, but this time to benefit nonprofit, Honor Flight Savannah.

For Coleman and Jay, supporting Honor Flight Savannah was natural. Coleman, an Army veteran, had served as a guardian or escort for his older brother Carl, an Army and Cold War veteran. When Jay volunteered for an Honor Flight Savannah trip several years ago, he was the guardian for Beaufort’s long-time, revered mayor, Henry C. Chambers, an Army veteran. For the Johnson Creek Tavern co-owners, the trips were a moving experience.

Honor Flight Savannah
Honor Flight Savannah was started in 2008 by Larry Spears, a retired Lieutenant in the US Navy, and his wife Marian. She recalls, while on a trip, that a veteran was able to touch his father’s and brother’s names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. “He looked at me with unequivocal emotion: ‘I made it,’ he said.”

Honor Flight Network is a nonprofit organization established over 20 years ago with the core mission of honoring America’s WWII veterans, by transporting them to Washington, DC, to visit the memorials built in honor of their service. Since its founding, the network has expanded to include about 140 local affiliates, called “hubs.” Honor Flight Savannah is the regional hub that takes veterans from the Savannah area and also from the South Carolina coast to Charleston. Beaufort is its geographic center.

Since 2008, Honor Flight Savannah has completed 26 trips to our nation’s capital, allowing 525 veterans from the Lowcountry area to see our nation’s war memorials free of charge. Each visit begins with a welcome ceremony at the World War II Memorial and continues through the day with visits to the Navy, Marine, and Air Force Memorials; Korean War Memorial; the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; the Women in Military Service For America Memorial; and the highlight of the day—watching the sentinels from the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment march with precision as they guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. It is a once in a lifetime experience for the veterans. They make new friends and reminisce about their time in uniform.

Upcoming Trips For Veterans
In February 2020, “Operation Pull Down” at JCT hosted two Beaufort veterans who will be on the next trip to Washington, DC: Mike Keyserling, a retired Delta captain who began his flying career with a combat tour in Vietnam, following his US Air Force Academy graduation; and Colden Battey, a local attorney, whose Vietnam service was in the US Navy. The third Beaufort resident, who could not attend the JCT event, is Rick Stearns, a US Marine Corps retiree who began his military service in Vietnam. Stearns rose through the ranks in the USMC, and, at the time of his retirement in 1996, he was a Colonel and the commanding officer of the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

The goal for the February “Operation Pull Down” was to remove approximately $11,000 in dollar bills, which would be enough to cover the costs for the 22 veterans on the next Honor Flight Savannah trip. The final dollar count was just shy of that.

For more information about donating, volunteering, or taking a trip as either an honored veteran or a guardian, please visit www.honorflightsavannah.org.