It was a warm welcome home Thursday night at Meadows Field for dozens of local World War II veterans, returning from seeing the sights in our nation's capitol.
It was a patriotic payback for their service and sacrifice, sending those veterans, all 90 of them, on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C.
The primary goal was to visit the World War II Memorial, erected to honor all WWII vets for their service to our country.
The trip was made possible by Honor Flight Kern County, an organization of citizen volunteers who want to make sure our World War II veterans get a chance to see the war memorials in D.C. before they get too old to travel anymore.
Everything was paid for and each veteran was accompanied by a self-funded guardian to help them deal with the rigors of air and bus travel along the way.
"The main thing I wanted to see was the Lincoln Memorial. He was my favorite character in history," said veteran Bob Johnson. "And, then we went to the Wall of Honor, Arlington Cemetery, we just had a whirlwind tour of Washington D.C."
"Absolutely wonderful. I could not encourage the World War II vets enough to step up and take this opportunity. Every need is anticipated and met," said guardian Marlia Naples.
17's Katey Rusch was also on Honor Flight Two. She will have a full report on this exciting and memorable excursion beginning Friday on 17 News at 5 p.m.
