Honoring those who served

Monday and Tuesday, April 25-26, 2016, a plane full of veterans was honored to fly back to our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., and visit the different services memorials, including Arlington National Cemetery. I had visited Washington quite a few times since I grew up back East, but had never seen the changing-of-the-guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I will remember this forever.

This honor for all veterans is organized once or twice a year and is completely paid for by private donations. Some organizations like the DAR play a big part in donating; one anonymous donor gives $75,000 each year; and one young gentleman has donated more than $106,000 on his own, started at age 9 and is now 16.

One gentleman, Tony Lamanna, Director of Inland Northwest Honor Flight, organizes and schedules all this and this is his 32nd. Each veteran is assigned a guardian to keep you safe and keep track of you as you enjoy your trip, and usually assigned two veterans to look after. Once you sign up, you are scheduled by your military action and service time. The last of the World War II veterans, 21 are left, and now into the Korean and Vietnam vets. The only cost to the vet is getting to the airport to leave and return home. What an honor this is.

We had 89 veterans, and 57 volunteers assigned veterans to look after. We had 5 staff, 3 medics including a doctor and 2 professional photographers. We will, in about 3 weeks, get copies on a disc of all the photos taken going to Washington, at the memorials and the return trip back.

We were paired to someone and stayed at the Hyatt Regency-Crystal City in Arlington, Va., Tuesday night with a banquet for all at 9 p.m. that night. Those veterans that required a wheelchair were all well accommodated and never missed a thing, even with all of us traveling on three buses and assigned a bus color to stay assigned to. Roll call was checked after each stop by each bus staff member.

We departed Spokane Airport at 8 a.m. with fanfare provided by many adults and young children waving American flags. We were greeted on our return by veterans, adults and many children waving American flags and passing out goodies. There was also a school band playing on our return flight.

Unfortunately, we were delayed by about 2-½ hours on our return, as a veteran who was aboard was stricken with a stroke and was immediately treated by our medical staff, especially medic Tracy Hopper. We had an emergency landing at Minneapolis Airport to have the veteran, along with her husband, transferred to a hospital there. We then resumed our flight home to Spokane. We all were given name tags and a plastic envelope to wear around our necks to keep our boarding passes and other items in.

Rosauer’s Supermarkets gave everyone a shopping bag with a sandwich and other items in and Arby’s gave everyone a luncheon box during our trip. We had plenty of water and the weather (lower 70s and upper 80s) was beautiful during the whole time we were there. Each veteran was given a package of postcards in color for all the memorials that we visited for a souvenir.

I almost forgot to mention that everywhere we went while in Washington, we had a police motorcycle escort and none of the three buses stopped at “red lights.” Everyone always gave us the once over and wondering who we were, on three buses getting the VIP service. All us veterans were given a gray T-shirt showing a veteran’s wall and other memorial memories and the guardians were given dark blue T-shirts — same design, but listing “guardian” on theirs. Most veterans put their shirts on Tuesday morning and wore them back home.

For those veterans that would appreciate going to Washington, contact Inland Northwest Honor Flight, Tony Lamanna at (509) 220-2195 or Deni Ellis at (509) 953-4888 and ask to be put on the list. There is also an Honor Flight Picnic planned from noon to 3 p.m. June 25, 2016, at Waterfront Park, Medical Lake, Wash. This is being catered by Longhorn Barbecue and costs $22 per person ($10 goes directly to the Honor Flight support). RSVP by June 22 by calling (509) 624-0222. A great cause to help support. I’m sure none of us will forget this great honor and show of appreciation the rest of our lives.

God bless America.

Bill Singleton is a Coeur d’Alene resident.