Veteran Thanks All Saints’ Episcopal Day School
This letter, written by one of our WWII Veterans who recently returned from the first Honor Flight of 2016, to the teachers/principal of the students from All Saints’ Episcopal Day School, states what so many of our greatest generation feel and know to be true. His group were welcomed home by family and friends, along with a wonderful group of young people and their teachers – met with cheers, smiles, clapping, and music! A lovely culmination to the veterans’ 3-day trip of Honor & Remembrance! Well-said, Jim!
A big HI to Ms. Cotton and Kate Erblich:
Kate, I’m going to ask Ms. Cotton to share this with you because I don’t think I could handle two letters in one day. If my sentences seem disjointed and my thoughts jumbled, it is only because of … well, how do you respond to how we, the Honor Flight, were met and greeted? I know from my own experience that it is accepted with mixed emotions. I think “aw shucks, it wasn’t all that much,” is the most common reply.
We, as a generation, were faced with a problem. We, as a generation, not individuals, responded. It may have been as military or Rosie the Riveters, those who planted a Victory Garden or just (yes) recycled tin cans or lived with the rationing. We all did what needed to be done and what each of us could do. I and many others know that we have been blessed in so many ways. We, the former military, know that ALL GAVE SOME, OTHERS GAVE ALL!
So, for all your thanks, we veterans have to give you thanks also….AND
It is YOU —- teachers and students of the current and future generations that are instrumental in choosing and guiding those who will be leaders, literally, of the world. It is groups like yours and like the young people we saw at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that makes me happy to say that “There just might be hope for this world!”
Carla, my dear, Thank You! And a big thank you to you, Kate! You have picked an extremely serious and important event. We can only hope and pray that we can eliminate and not have to face the problems Anne Frank was subjected to. Mr. Edmund Burke said, “Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it.” I keep remembering “If we don’t learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.”
So, to the two of you, on behalf of Honor Flight Arizona (flight #51), I thank you!!
May the good Lord bless you and keep you
May He make His to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
Bless you all and THANK YOU,
Jim
I was honored to travel to Washington D.C. on 6 November 2012 (Election Day). There were about 27 of us and what a treat & treatment that we received during the 3 days that honored by workers of Honor Flight and the general public. I was lucky to be chosen to make the trip. My last trip to D.C. was in 1961 and there was so much to see. At every stop, from Southwest Airlines to the Baltimore/Washingon Hilton Hotel to the Charter Bus we road in we were thanked and applauded for our service during WWII.
I would hope that Honor Flight would also continue this program for our “Forgotten Warriors” of the Korean “Police Action”. There are fewer and fewer of us WWII vets left. Keep up this great program!