Air Compassion for Veterans

Pat,

Not sure if you or your readers in the U.S. and Europe are familiar with a program in the United States known as Honor Flights. This national program with local regional partners finds sponsors and collects donations to fly groups of WWII veterans (at no cost to the veterans) to Washington, D.C. to visit the National World War II Memorial and museums on the National Mall. On occasion, the local groups also raise funds and organize events to fly veterans to visit the major World War II battlefield sites in Europe.

This past week, in the city where I live, a group of 11 WWII veterans flew to Paris to spend four nights in Normandy (Sainte Marie du Mont) and two nights in Bastogne. 0ver 20 escorts, including a medical team, joined the veterans for the trip. When the group arrived at the airport for departure they were met by an honor guard of Patriot Guard Riders, local school children and airport/airline employees and a band from a local military installation. Upon their return, their airliner passed under a water arch of honor formed by water cannons from two airport fire trucks.

Here is the link to Honor Flight organization:

http://www.honorflight.org

A few pictures from the group’s departure to Europe last week.

[IMG=850x638]http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q565/kgmccarthy1/honorflight1.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG=850x638]http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q565/kgmccarthy1/honorflight2.jpg[/IMG]
The gentleman leading the group is a veteran of the 29th Division and the Omaha Beach landing.


R/Kevin

Edited by Pat to reduce image width to 850 pixels

 

Yes
we met them last Friday at the American cemetery.. Great men!

 

It has been over six years since my last post on this thread, but once again, this afternoon, I had the privilege seeing off another group of WWII veterans from the Memphis, Tennessee airport on a “Trip of Honor”. This time the trip is for a group of 18 WWII vets and their escorts to travel to Normandy for the D-Day 75th Anniversary. Only three vets and their ten escorts departed from Memphis, but they will meet up with the rest of their group at the Atlanta airport this evening for the overnight flight to Paris and an afternoon bus ride out to Normandy. In Atlanta this evening, a news crew from ABC–TV World News Tonight will join the group. Starting on Monday night and continuing until Thursday, the ABC-TV national evening news broadcast (6:30 PM EDT/ 5:30 PM CDT), will include a report on the progress of this group.


A few pictures from the departure at Memphis this afternoon:


The three WWII veterans departing Memphis today (center from left); Jack Claiborne (U.S. Navy), John Young, Sr. and K.T. Robbins (U.S. Army) joined by Greg, Dan and Diane Hight of the Forever Young Senior Vets Organization



With John Young, Sr., 2nd Infantry Division, who arrived on Omaha Beach on D-Day+1



WWII Third Army veteran K.T. Robbins



U.S. Navy WWII veteran Jack Claiborne who manned a landing craft on D-Day

While there are many similar non-profit groups throughout the country, the organization in Memphis is the Forever Young Senior Veterans organization (http://Foreveryoungvets.org). Through generous contributions, this organization covered the entire $5,750 cost of this trip for each veteran. Ten years ago, when I first started attending these departure events at several airports across the country, the veterans were exclusively from WWII. But, as these veterans continue to leave us at a rate of several hundred each day, some of these organizations have extended the scope of their programs to include Korean War veterans.

Again, it was honor to meet these gentlemen this afternoon and I look forward to the nightly updates on the ABC World News Tonight broadcast throughout the week.


R/
Kevin