indytechnerd
Master
My wife's grandfather (age 95) got to participate in yesterday's honor flight to DC. 68 vets, 67 WWII and 1 Vietnam (terminally ill so bumped to the front of the line) were on the flight. Lots of Navy boys, but all branches were represented. 66 men and 2 women, one WAVE and one WAC, made the trip. My wife's aunt was his guardian. Here are some pics of the celebration after at Plainfield High School.
Outside the gym, the hallway was lined with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, ROTC groups, and Patriot Guard Riders all holding American flags for them to walk through from their bus all the way to the gym.
The 'parade route' around the gym floor. They talked a lot about how most of the WWII vets didn't get the parades because they were still in theater for up to a year after the war had ended. So, in lieu of the parades the happened around VE day, they surprised the vets with their own parade yesterday. The vets entered at the upper left, near the USAF flag, and circled the floor clockwise. All of the people standing shook hands or gave them hugs, all 68 of them. My son shook everyone's hand until grandpa came along, then he held the picture for him.
My son carrying his picture. By the end of their parade, his arms were tired, so he switched and pushed the wheelchair.
The assembled vets after the parade.
The POW-MIA table setting. The frame on the left gives the meaning for all of the items on the table. I don't remember them all, but they took a few minutes to explain the whole symbolism to the crowd.
A few of the dozen or so re-enactors who attended in period clothing. The soldiers and sailors saluted the vets and the girls gave the vets kisses on the cheek. The guys did the same for the two ladies on the flight.
I took some video of the vets all entering, with the Gordon Pipers (bagpipe and drum) playing the various military anthems, but something was stirring up dust in the air and I had to stop because I couldn't see. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a little tough on me, since my own WWII hero went home 2 weeks ago.
* - all of the photo filenames have a lower case 'L' at the end. If you'd like to view the full photo, open the image in a new tab, and remove the 'l' right before .jpg in the file name.
Outside the gym, the hallway was lined with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, ROTC groups, and Patriot Guard Riders all holding American flags for them to walk through from their bus all the way to the gym.
The 'parade route' around the gym floor. They talked a lot about how most of the WWII vets didn't get the parades because they were still in theater for up to a year after the war had ended. So, in lieu of the parades the happened around VE day, they surprised the vets with their own parade yesterday. The vets entered at the upper left, near the USAF flag, and circled the floor clockwise. All of the people standing shook hands or gave them hugs, all 68 of them. My son shook everyone's hand until grandpa came along, then he held the picture for him.
My son carrying his picture. By the end of their parade, his arms were tired, so he switched and pushed the wheelchair.
The assembled vets after the parade.
The POW-MIA table setting. The frame on the left gives the meaning for all of the items on the table. I don't remember them all, but they took a few minutes to explain the whole symbolism to the crowd.
A few of the dozen or so re-enactors who attended in period clothing. The soldiers and sailors saluted the vets and the girls gave the vets kisses on the cheek. The guys did the same for the two ladies on the flight.
I took some video of the vets all entering, with the Gordon Pipers (bagpipe and drum) playing the various military anthems, but something was stirring up dust in the air and I had to stop because I couldn't see. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a little tough on me, since my own WWII hero went home 2 weeks ago.
* - all of the photo filenames have a lower case 'L' at the end. If you'd like to view the full photo, open the image in a new tab, and remove the 'l' right before .jpg in the file name.
