This year’s spring Washington DC trip was quite the experience. On April 28th, 2014, veterans from all over the country, representative of the Vietnam War, Korean War and WWII, traveled to our nation’s capital. Tough weather conditions awaited our veterans in DC, but it was no surprise that with the makeup of our group, they braved through it all. On the first activity day, we visited the Vietnam, Korean and WWII Memorials as well as Arlington National Cemetery. The following day, we made the trip out to Chantilly, VA, to visit the Udvar Hazy Museum (National Air & Space Museum) that house close to 200 aircraft, including the Enola Gay and the Discovery space shuttle. As has been a common theme on our DC trips, we finished off our trip with a dinner at American Legion Post 86 in Rockville, MD.
Our veteran group consisted of:
Carl C., age 93-Tank commander in the Army during WWII who served in Germany, England and France (Pueblo, CO-Wynwood of Pueblo)
Art U., age 86-Trained paratroopers stateside during WWII in the Army and spent over 30 years in the Naval Reserves (Pueblo, CO-Wynwood of Pueblo)
Donald H., age 87-Served in the Navy aboard the USS LST 951 during WWII in the South Pacific (Sound Bend, IN-Sterling House of South Bend)
Ivan S., age 80-Served in the 8th infantry division of the Army in Germany post-WWII (Albany, OR-Wynwood of Albany)
Ruth H., age 87- Ruth’s late husband Don was an Army medic during WWII, serving 4 years including time in Normandy during D-Day (Chicago, IL-Devonshire of Hoffman Estates)
John M., age 83- John served as an Army medic in Korea and turned down a Purple Heart because he didn’t want his mother to know he was wounded. (Chicago, IL)
Frank B., age 67-Frank served in an infantry unit in the Army during the Vietnam War (Albany, OR)
