Last night I had a unique chance to do something truly special... I think they do this all over the country, but here it's called StarsAndStripes Honor flight...where they raise donations and they fill a jet with World War II Veterans and their helpers and fly them from Milwaukee to Washington DC for the day so they can see the WWII Memorial for themselves. Last night a group of 200+ came home a little before 11:00 PM to a hero's welcome.
On a Sunday night, our airport was packed with people to welcome them home and it was an experience I can't really describe very well. I would guess more than 4000- 5000 people with flags and banners, a marching band, a bagpipe band, an honor guard, and a large group of current LEO's and military people there to salute them. I even saw a group of young women (I would guess college age) were dressed in 1940's era clothes with their hair done up from that time just like it was 1945. It took over an hour to get everyone off the plane and many of these guys are in wheel chairs, but everyone in the crowd stood and cheered the whole time. (Most of us had been there for hours already)
The look in the eyes of these guys getting a little thanks long overdue. It was overwhelming for some of them and priceless for me to be a small part of. If you ever get a chance to do something like this, it's well worth a couple hours of your time.
Oh yeah,, and there was a contingent from the Patriot Guard there on bikes to escort a few of the buses - so now it's sort of Valk related.
I couldn't get a decent picture as the crow was too large...but everyone there had a smile on their face and lump in their throat.
