Jay McMaster, Brian Duffy, Dan Finch, Bob Haggard, Jeff Miller, Bill and Bobbi Richards, and Faye Wisely showed up at the WWII Memorial as did Senators Dole and Dole.  It was a terrific gathering of approximately 500 Veterans and half again as many guardians.  Both Kari and Lea helped with the photography and if you venture over to the Photo Site, you’ll see some 350 images that we took between us. The nice thing about digital imaging and the website is that you can see what was going on at the WWII Memorial in synched time.  While I was out at Reagan National photographing Jeff Miller and Rob Haggard’s group, Kari and Lea were photographing the goings-on at the Memorial.  I had never had the opportunity to get out to the airports and photograph and the welcoming celebration was absolutely terrific.  US Airway’s Carole Cloyd and her crew did everything to make the welcome extraordinary. Volunteers and passengers cheered while veterans danced with the welcoming committee.  Tres Cool!!!

Jim Michelvsky of NBC was documenting the South Carolina flight and it was a great pleasure to see him as we had shared adjacent cubby holes in the basement of the White House during the Reagan/Bush Adminsitrations. He was telling me he was off chasing Pirates a couple of months ago off the coast of Somalia.  The news business is never dull!  He’s been covering the Pentagon for the last sixteen years and he said of the Honor Flights ….”It was a “target rich” story…!”  The piece will air next weekend for Memorial Day and I have the feeling that it’s going to be quite extraordinary.  More information to come.

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