I'd like to interrupt our usual bellyaching here for a moment to tell you about a program that I didn't know existed. Honor Flight Network for Veterans is a non-profit organization whose mission is to get as many veterans to visit their memorials as they can. They fly veterans from all over the U.S. to Washington, accompany them around the memorials, feed them and fly them back home,
all at no cost to the veteran! This year they started an RV division, beginning with an RV donated to the cause by a grateful widow. They enlist RV owners to donate their vehicles and time to convoy veterans to the Capitol. Mind you, these volunteers pay for their own gasoline (5 - 10 MPG!) and drive these guys, all out of the greatness of their hearts. The veterans are guven shirts, driven, fed, hotel-ed, and escorted around their memorials,
all at no cost to the veteran! The waiting list for these trips can be long; as of last year they had taken over 38,000 vets, and had 7,000 on the list. Preference is given to WW2 vets, and front-of-the-list for terminal patients. It was on one of these RV trips that my Father and Uncle went last weekend.
My father is 83, and his brother is 93, and in bad shape. His children nominated him and he was upgraded due to his very fragile health (he most likely will not make it into 2011). His only request was that his brother accompany him, thus my father went, too.
My Dad is a very low key man, but he was near tears and smiling broadly when I picked him up Sunday. He told of the many, many people that shook their hands and thanked him for their service. He told of the Honor Guard at the WW2 memorial that invited his brother ( a Purple Heart Medal holder - his observation plane was shot down over the Pacific) to come front and center during the changing of the guard. He told of the man in a restaurant, there with his wife and infant child, who picked up the tab for all 57 of them, plus tip. He told of how no vet was even allowed to reach for his wallet. And, sadly, he told of the woman, with her child, in the rest stop who looked at his shirt and sneered at him. I guess there's one in every crowd.
I'm not quite sure why I'm posting this, I guess if you're interested you can look at
www.honorflight.org or donate a couple bucks of you want. Or, if you know, or are, a vet, you might be interested. They figure we lose 1000 WW2 vets a day, so time is important. I guess I just wanted to share the idea with some people that might not know about it. Thanks for reading, now get back to the bickering.
Joe B.
