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Honor Flight to Washington, D. C.
Jim Siscel

Slide Show of Photos with captions at end of trip information

In February a close retired Air Force friend asked me to be his guardian on a Honor Flight to Washington, D. C. The Honor Flight program was originally set up to take our WWII veterans to Washington one last time to see the military memorials located there before they passed on.  The program now has local groups in all but two states. This trip is provided free for the veterans and is supported by donations to the organization.  Puget Sound Honor Flight organization takes four trips each trips each year--April, May, September, and October.  We went on the May trip.  The trip had 54 veterans--20+ WWII, 25+ Korea, and 1 Vietnam, along with 54 guardians, medical personnel, photographers, and other support people.  We flew from SeaTac to Baltimore (BWI) where we stayed at the Hilton at the airport.  They treated us very nicely, with some of the best food I've ever had in a group situation.  Sunday morning a motorcycle group called the BWI Brownies escorted our two buses to Washington.  We had a nice ceremony at the World War II Memorial.  At each location we had around 1 hour to visit that location.  Next we moved to the Lincoln Memorial where we had access to the Korean Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and Lincoln Memorial.  Next we went to the FDR Memorial, passing the Jefferson Memorial on the way.  For our last stop we visited the Navy Memorial and museum.  At each stop we had to unload transportation wheelchairs, with small wheels, for those 30+ veterans needing them, and then reload them before traveling on.  We returned to the Hilton and again had an excellent dinner.  Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and returned to Washington and Arlington, VA.  We visited the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, then up to Arlington Cemetery for the Changing of the Guardian the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  We were located at the same level as the guards, not up on the stairs as I have been before.  This offered a really different perspective.  Then on to the Marine Memorial adjacent to the Arlington Cemetery, before heading to our last stop the Air Force Memorial, just a short distance from the Pentagon.  After a late box lunch we headed for Reagan Airport in Washington where we boarded an Alaska flight for home arriving at 9:30pm.  It was a fantastic trip even though it was tiring pushing my veteran for two days in warm and humid weather.  As we passed people everywhere, around the memorials and at the airports people approached the veterans, clapping and thanking them for their service.  This was so much appreciated by the veterans.  If you are reading this as a veteran please checkout PugetSoundHonorflight.org and if you feel up to it take this trip.  If you would like to be a guardian there are veterans who do not have family close by and need a guardian.  The cost for a guardian is $1000, you do get a tax benefit as the organization is a 502c3.  Though I don't think an individual could make such a trip for much less than $1000.  To me it was worth it to rub shoulders with these men and one woman on the trip who have served our country, to listen to their stories and to experience all of the monuments with them.