WICHITA, Kan. – On the 100th Kansas Honor Flight, 100 veterans from Kansas marked an important trip by going to Washington, D.C. to see memorials. They then flew back to Wichita.
The people who put together the honor flights say they are about care, gratitude, and remembering the people who gave their lives for others. A lot of veterans who were honoring fallen heroes called it a powerful trip.
The Kansas Honor Flight has been taking soldiers to the memorials for World War II, Korea, and Vietnam for ten years now as an act of honor. A lot of these soldiers said this was their first time seeing the memorials in Washington, D.C. More than 3,000 soldiers have been able to go there for free thanks to this program.
A soldier named Paul Feleciano said, “Everywhere we went, people thanked us for what we did for their country.”
Kansas’s 100th Honor Flight for Veterans takes off.
“I’ve been to the National Mall before, but never with this many veterans.” And all of these guys are from every possible background you can think of. “But you connect right away with the person sitting next to you,” soldier David Blake said.
Some people said the trip made them feel a lot of different feelings, brought back memories, and helped them heal.
There are times when the “guardians” who go to help the soldiers learn new things.
“My dad doesn’t really talk about things like what he went through.” So everyone told us a lot of stories. He told stories while they told stories. So it was great to be able to do that, said Jenny Vehige, a guardian.
It makes them feel like they can move on with their lives and heal. It seems very important to me. Let me explain. The tears we saw came from hearing stories they hadn’t told anyone else. “It was really cool to experience, and I think it helps them heal a lot,” Vehige said.
A lot of the veterans also said that the fact that the return flight happened on 9/11 made it even more important to them and reminded them of all the people who have died for our country.