The Windy City rolled into DC which should be renamed the “Soggy City” this year. There were ninety-one Veterans and another 90 guardians in blissful tow. They arrived at the WWII Memorial a bit late in the afternoon because they had visited the other Memorials before they got to the WWII to enable the Veterans to appreciate the size of the WWII Memorial. It’s eight acres certainly make it the largest of the Memorials and the location is so amazing that it took ten years of legal wrangling to finalize it!

I managed to get photographs of Mary, Jean Marie and Suzanne before they disappeared with their veterans. Today (and for the past few days), a father/son team has dressed in WWII garb to greet the vets.  I’ve got a few photos of them and will try to get their names for the next post. It’s nice to see a father and son working together with the veterans.

I advise Honor Flight Chicago  (and will be glad to advise any Honor Flight) on photo storage and so have had the opportunity to witness “big city” Chicago at work. The committee on the phone conferences is forty-five to fifty people and they are Chicago’s most connected. The meetings are run like clockwork so “60 minutes is an hour” and that’s the end of the meeting.  They are so successful that 1500 citizens turn up to greet the veterans in Chicago.  A local TV station is doing a 30 minute piece for July 4th weekend.

Al Doehring, National Park Service volunteer, and I had the opportunity to spend some time together discussing the construction of the eagles. it may be time to start sorting through the 15,000 images I have of the construction to show more detail…and get that on a separate historical website….

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