Student reporters from McHenry Community High School in Illinois had the privilege of accompanying veterans from every service branch on an honor flight to Washington last month, documenting the “welcome home” the veterans received in a video report.
“Coming into the airport, it was very touching,” reporters Rayaan Ahmed, Nikki Sisson, and Cooper Ten Bruin quoted Navy veteran Edward L Oller as saying about traveling to the nation’s capital on an honor flight. “It’s kind of hard to describe because I never felt that way before. Even when I came back from Vietnam, it was like I went out to get a gallon of milk and came home. This has been awesome to experience that feeling.”
Air Force Memorial with its sky-touching spires (iStockPhoto)The group of student journalists traveled with the veterans to various museums and memorials, such as the sprawling Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial with the names of the soldiers who lost their lives, many of them known to the northern Illinois veterans on the trip, etched into the wall. They also got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Vietnam Memorial (iStockPhoto)Marine Corps veteran Lewis Bassett described what he felt when the group visited the Iwo Jima Memorial, which honors one of the bloodiest Marine Corps battles in US history: “Iwo Jima was before me, but the statue—this means a lot,” he was quoted as saying. “The hymn means everything because it’s something you live by.”
The Marine Corps Hymn
From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country’s battles in the air, on land, or sea.
First to fight for right and freedom and to keep our honor clean,
We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.
“It gives you a lot of energy,” Mr Bassett continued, “a good belief in what you did and that you did it right. And you’re proud to represent the ones that didn’t make it back. And the ones that were thinking about going, you want to try to do your best to show them that everything is not always right in this world, but it can be better. And all we gotta do is stay together.”
