Blogs
Donate, Raffle, Fly for Honor Flight
Judy Lemmons asked me to post a notice about a very exciting Raffle. This is an absolutely rare opportunity and while I don’t normally gamble, I think I’ll be buying some chances!!! Flying with a demonstration team is the stuff of photographic legend and the photographer here had a really nice photo opportunity. And you’ll […]
Honor Flight Chicago’s Poet Laureate
From Mary Pettinato: “Richard Williams, a WWII Veteran who is legally blind and recovering from a heart attack, sent us (Honor Flight Chicago) this poem.” Now Listen Up Now listen up. you Guys and Dolls of WWII, This Honor Flight Chicago program is for REAL! I mean,they bust their butts to please and honor YOU, […]
Fountains and Posted Schedule
The fountains are on and the April schedule is posted. Senator Dole normally arrives at WWII Memorial at 10:30 and while he is supposedly there only to shake hands with veterans, I’ve never seen him turn down a handshake. He may be the most shaking guy on the planet! Jeff Miller and his lovely wife Tam […]
Signs of Spring at World War II Memorial
From the front lines!!! …Emails from George Kerestes and Kari Beasley are sure signs that Spring is on its way and the flights will soon beginning. Judy Lemmons wrote that three flights will be here April 23, 24th and 25th. The fountains are still off but the World War II Memorial is still crowded with […]
Stanley Wojtusik: Battle of the Bulge
Just prior to the opening of the WWII Memorial, I worked for a month on a large advertising supplement for the Washington Post Magazine. I had the opportunity to photograph a few of the veterans who testified before Congress and influenced the legislation to finally construct the Memorial. One of them was Stan Wojtusik (upper […]
The Sinking of the S.S. Leopoldville
I was down at the FDR bookstore this Saturday chatting with my favorite bookseller Linda Brown (not a relative) when Lenore Angelo walked in and stopped us in our tracks with a tale of a ship gone down and families not notified of how their relatives passed away for fifty years. The S.S. Leopoldville was […]
WWII Memorial Honor Roll
I took a few hours to put together a twenty-six page book of 200 images selected from the 5000 taken last year at the WWII Memorial. It’s a nice selection and on this cold February day in DC makes me look forward to the first visitors to the Memorial this year. You can see the […]
World War II Talks at the Memorial
Dan Arant has been a National Park Service volunteer sine 1993 and serves at the Vietnam Memorial and the WWII Memorial. His current topics are: Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Iwo Jima. Future planned topics are: The Battle of the Atlantic, Japan’s Kamikaze Force, and the Surrener Ceremony on the USS Missouri. Each talk is […]
Registering WWII veterans with the Memorial
The WWII Memorial has become a place where people can channel their love and grief. Doing the “Jewel of the Mall” book has brought me some beautiful letters… and I thought I would share this one with you and remind you that you should make sure the veterans in your town are registered with […]
Follow up: Inaugural Views
Chuck Kennedy, a good friend and great photographer has done several feature articles on Honor Flight for McClatchy Newspapers. He came up with a totally unique view for the inauguration. You probably saw it in your local paper as it was distributed internationally and has become the “defining” picture of the day. There is an article […]
Go Navy!!
Dorothy Mary (Sudomir) Budacki passed away this Fall. I had the chance to meet her and her daughter, Denise Duke (both in Navy uniform) at the World War II Memorial in November of 2007. We exchanged some pictures and letters over the past year and this is one of my favorite images. Her daughter Denise wrote: […]
DC PHOTO BOOK
Today, 10,000 books arrive at the warehouse. A thousand are scheduled to be shipped to Amazon, two Honor Flight hubs and retailers by Monday so I am delighted that the production of this new edition went so smoothly. I am also proud that the new books are much stronger and exactly the same weight. The […]
Happy New Year!
Washington, DC will soon be abuzz with inauguration activity. The town is hopping with visitors and students on Winter Break. Construction is going on from the Capitol to the White House. If the crowds are anything like predicted, it will be interesting to see how the whole event plays. DC is capable of handling some enormous crowds but […]
Congressional Gaggle at WWII Memorial
Senator Dole, Chuck Hegel (new Secretary of Health?), Jeff Fortenberry and _____(help me out here) joined together to welcome these Wisconsin, Nebraska and Albany veterans on a cold but beautifully breezy day. Unlike Summer, people were staking out those nice sunny spots from which to look around the WWII Memorial. You can just begin to […]
Winning Images
Kari Beardsley is an Honor Flight volunteer who’s been working with me on the photography and I wanted to showcase both her work yesterday and in particular this photograph of three vets on the Mall which has become one of my favorite images. It says everything about our veterans’ visits to the Mall. Kari is a financial and project manager […]
Fall on the Mall
Kansas and Georgia arrived to cloudy but tolerably comfortable weather and as the Kansas group formed up for the “most organized picture of the year”, Senator Dole arrived. After we made the group picture, Senator Dole talked about the fact that the WWII Memorial was built by private contributions and that the government had nothing […]
Veterans Day 2008
The nice thing about living in Washington, DC is the opportunity to stop by and visit the WWII Memorial and get a quick glimpse of what’s going on and post a few photos. Today, there were cavalry from Florida, WWII Veterans from Chevy Chase, Maryland, George Kerestes and some friends from Pennsylvania, 82nd Airborne troops from […]
Senator Dole Public Service Announcement
Senator Dole cut a PSA for Honor Flight a couple of months ago and hopefully you will be seeing it on your television screen by Veterans’ Day. WTTG Fox was gracious enough to host Honor Flight and produce the PSA. You can access a quicktime version of it at my WWII Memorial Book site. Jeff […]
Res Ipsa Loquitur
100 Yards from Vietnam Memorial I have been asking the National Park Service to open the building at the WWII Memorial to a limited and tasteful selection of interpretive and appropriate WWII books. Their response to date: “…we are deliberate in our decision making process with respect to how to appropriately interpret any and all […]
Birmingham Caps Off 2008 Season at World War II Memorial
Birmingham, AL On Wednesday, November 5 Honor Flight Birmingham took to the skies for the final flight in 2008. This was the fifth flight of 2008 for the Birmingham program started by Pam Nichols and Amy McDonald. The group included 34 veterans, two-thirdsof which were Navy veterans. They were warmly greeted to cheers and tears at Baltimore International Airport […]
General Colin Powell Visits With Troops at WWII Memorial
General Colin Powell visited today with six Honor Flight hubs at the WWII Memorial today. Among them were Asheville/ Buncobe County, Louisiana Honor Air, Honor Flight Columbus, Quad City, Iowa, Honor Flight Michigan, and Honor Flight Dayton for a total of 600 veterans. General Powell made short work of shaking hands with everyone and photographer […]
Earl Morse Inducted into Veteran Hall of Fame
The Springfield News-sun reported today that our very own Earl “Edwin” Morse was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame Class of 2008 by Governor Ted Strickland. “We honor all Ohio veterans for their selfless service to our communities and to our nation,” Strickland said. “The men and women of the Ohio Veterans Hall […]
Publish or Perish! WWII Memorial Book
I just set up a Cafe Press website where you can order an endless supply of WWII Memorial merchandise from t-shirts, cups, custom cards, etc. Have a look. The prices are reasonable and the quality of their materials are good. I shop online and I know what everyone’s getting for Christmas!! Re the Jewel of […]
Panoramas, WWII Memorial
I’ll be posting a few WWII Memorial panoramas I am working on. Jewel of the Mall: World War II Memorial is a 120 page full color photographic book on the WWII Memorial.