Afer a rainy day on the Mall, I got this from Mary Pettinato of Chicago Honor Flight:

“…The Welcome Home Celebration was our best yet. We had over 1800 people to greet our vets/ Rolling Thunder, Guradian Angel riders and many more scary looking bikers. To contrast that, we had little JonBenet Ramsey’s wearing crowns and dressed in red, white, and blue (freaky looking and not pretty!). .Then we had 100 Boy Scouts saluting–they rocked.  We had 150 high school kids in shirts specifically made up for the day that said, “logo of their school then in big red letters cursive We Honor You and then the Honor Flight Chicago logo. It was amazing.  Buses, trolleys and more unloading people.  WOWI!  Still recovering….”

It is wonderful to see the love and veneration for our elders…especially as I’m getting to be one of them!!!

Honor Flight is featured in Jewel of the Mall: World War II Memorial book.