Honor Flight

This book is about the gracious generation of Americans who have decided to honor those who served in World War Two (WWII) and in the generation of wars since then. It is about an organization that is giving veterans honor that a past generation denied them. Do you remember the Vietnamese Police Action where the American sentiment was against wars? Not only against war, but against every man and woman who went to defend our liberty. Many college students and young persons were in the “peace” movement. Returning veterans were stoned when they disembarked from ships bringing them home from Vietnamese fighting. One uniformed war hero who returned from Vietnam was walking across a college campus when a little four year old boy ran up to him to hug his leg. The father grabbed the boy and said, “Stay away from that man. He is a baby killer”. There were very few who would hire returning service men and women and many of these veterans succumbed to severe depression and drugs. That sentiment changed after September 11, 2001. Thankfully the media’s showing of the terrible tragedy of 911 awakened America. Many of our young people have had to go to war again to defend this country. We learned that there was a new and different kind of war, the war of Terror. Most families today have a service man or woman in their family or extended family. Everyone has viewed the fighting shown on television in Afghanistan and Iraq. The American sentiment today is that these men and women are defending our freedom and deserve our respect. I am writing this not to honor WWII veterans as I am one, but to introduce you to a group of people who have banded together to support and honor veterans of all wars and especially WWII. They work as volunteers and raise funds to completely support their cause. Their goal is to take every person who served in the military during these wars to Washington, D.C. to view the memorials that have been built and dedicated to honor them. Most WWII veterans are in their 80’s and 90’s and statistics for 2011 indicated that over 900 WWII veterans died every day. At that rate, they will not be with us very much longer. This volume will include a story of one of those Honor Flights, the fourth annual Honor Flight of Southern New Mexico. I was a veteran who had the distinct pleasure of being invited to go on that flight and through my meager efforts will take you along with us. Fasten your seat belts and let’s fly!