Wednesday, April 29, 2009

HONOR FLIGHT....


Above- LT Tongol, USCG and Homer "Mac" McCown, 92, ARMY AIR CORPS group engineering, Middle/East/North Africa/Italy Jan 12, 1942-July 31st, 1945.

11APRIL2009
On 11apr2009, a group of 32 Ohio Veterans were flown to Washington D.C. after my hometown high school raised money for their travel on what is now know as the "Honor Flight."

The Honor Flight Network, flies veterans to see their memorials at no cost. This particular flight flew WWII veterans from central Ohio to see the memorial of which none had seen before.

After my mother forwarded me the article and information of the group coming from my home town, I knew I had to be there at the memorial when they arrived. On the morning of the Honor Flight, it was nothing but thunderstorms and pouring rain, but I put on my uniform and walked from my DC apt to the WWII memorial and waited in the rain to meet the Veterans, as you can see the rain did nothing to our spirits, it was all smiles and joy when they arrived. It was a humbling experience to watch them all see the memorial for the first time, and it was definitely a reminder of why I joined the service myself...

Above is a picture of me with the oldest of the Veterans...

I was also told that when the Veterans returned home to Ohio, there was a large crowd awaiting their return to welcome them home as they deserve! God Bless them all... we all should take a little time to honor those that served before us, for this Country.