Since March, I have been involved in helping to organize the WWII Freedom Flight, through a partnership that has been established between American Airlines (because the CEO's children go to our school district) and my school district. The WWII Freedom Flight is modeled on a nationwide organization called Honor Flight that provides flights to Washington, DC for veterans. Our flight paired a GCISD student grades 5-12, a WWII vet, and a school district employee for a flight to DC. Students submitted contest entries for the 60 student spots on the flight. I helped judge the more than 700 entries that were submitted. In a previous contest about 500 students submitted entries for a challenge coin design. One design was chosen; an artist rendered the design; and a challenge coin was minted and given to all participants.
This program has been big from the get-go. Much bigger than anything that a school district employee is used to. A Nashville singer-songwriter was commissioned to write a song for a Celebration of Freedom that was held on May 9th. There is the challenge coin. Throughout the process, camera crews have been present documenting in order to produce a short video that will be shown in-flight on all American flights and a longer video will be made as well.
The Celebration of Freedom night started off with our district superintendent arriving via a tandem parachute jump with Mike Elliott, the Golden Knight with whom former President Bush, Sr. has previously jumped. Mary Eisenhower, the granddaughter of President Eisenhower, has been involved and traveled with us on May 24. Salvatore A. Giunta, who was recently awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barak Obama, spoke on May 9th; his speech was moving, especially so because he feels he didn't do anything worthy of the Medal of Honor. He was just doing his job.
So, all of this culminated in a flight to DC this week. I arrived at our district stadium at 6am, to board a bus to travel to the airport. At the airport we were greeted by one of our middle school bands.
Even though there was a dedicated security line, it was still a waiting game to get through security.
As the Veterans entered and were escorted to the front of the line, they received applause.
Once through security, I spied our plane, the Flagship Freedom, a 757 that would carry us to DC.
This is my WWII vet, Everett D. He is posing with two students who had written him letters. (I'll touch on that later.)
Another group of students waits to cheer us on.
These little girls and their patriotic skirts are just too cute. I'm sure their big brother or sister was participating in the flight. American made arrangements for any family members or student groups who wanted to be through security to be at the gate with us.
My vet, Everett D. and student, Aspen, awaiting take off.
On the flight up, students had interview questions to ask of their vets. Mr. D was drafted into the Army Corp of Engineers. He left a wife and young daughter at home. He served in the European Theater, marching within 80 miles of Berlin. He was at the Battle of the Bulge. As we were sitting in the back of the plane and it was noisy, I didn't hear all of Mr. Everett's responses. However, I did listen up when Aspen questioned him about a memorable experience during the war. Mr. D spoke with tears in his eyes of being a platoon leader who had to write letters telling mothers that their sons had died in combat. He recalls one solider who was literally blown to bits. They could only find shreds of his uniform with his name on it. While he might have been MIA, it was apparent that he was dead. The other haunting memory is that of coming into a concentration camp where about 30 people were still alive. He described them as bones covered with skin. In that same camp, 200 bodies were awaiting burial in a mass grave. He can still recall the stench of death.
On to something pleasant, the seats of the plane were all draped with towels supplied by my campus' Student Council.
And, even more pleasant than the decorations, the in-flight meal. Your choice of an omelet with hash browns or pancakes with sausage.
When we arrived at Reagan National Airport, we were greeted by this flag-waving American Airlines employee.
The jet-way and the concourse were decorated for our arrival.
We boarded buses and headed for the WWII Memorial. Mr. D is from Russell, Kansas, home to another, more famous WWII vet, former Senator Bob Dole. My Mr. D and Mr. Dole went to school together. Mr. D is 91; Dole is now 87. Mr. Dole was coming to the memorial, and the bigwigs arranged a meeting for Mr. Everett and Mr. Dole. Mr. Everett was excited to talk with Dole after years. (They did reconnect in Russell after the war and even during Dole's campaign for Presidency.)
Here is a glimpse of Dole. Most of the pictures that I took while Dole was there were with Mr. D's camera. Additionally, Mr. D was insistent that he and his girls (as he called Aspen and me) have our picture made with Mr. Dole. We did. Mr. D has the picture. I'll get a copy. As much as I try to play it cool, I was excited to be that close to Mr. Dole. I have to add at this point, I was struck by Mr. Dole's height. He is frail at 87, but tall.
After walking around the memorial, talking about the war, and taking photographs . . .
. . . we sat wherever we could find a spot to have our sack lunch.
Then, it was on the buses and over the river to the Iwo Jima Memorial.
The student who won the Challenge Coin design contest took her inspiration from the photograph that inspired this memorial. Her picture is seen on the back of the polos and tshirts that our group wore. Her design differs in that in the front, school children are raising the flag with the support of the soldiers.
The view of Washington Monument from the Iwo Jima Memorial.
From there it was on to Arlington National Cemetery for the changing of the guard. Here, as we debarked our buses and walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, our vets received spontaneous applause from groups as we walked past. It was moving. As a matter of fact, throughout the day, I was struck by the random tourists who walked up to the vets and thanked them for their service. It was nice to see that people recognize the sacrifices young men made as they traveled so far away from home.
I know I will see veterans in a different light. I've already had the opportunity. Today as we exited Wal-Mart, a vet was set up with a table collecting money. We gave Gavin money to put in his bucket. He gave Gavin a lollipop. But, I made sure to make eye-contact, shake his hand, and thank him for his service. I hope I will continue to remember that I can sleep at night because a soldier somewhere isn't, that I can freely go to Kroger at 10pm not fearing my safety because a soldier somewhere can't just run to Kroger, that I can tuck Gavin in each night because a soldier somewhere isn't tucking his child in.
Before boarding the buses, my boss, Becky and I posed for a quick picture.
Then it was back to the airport. And finally back on the plane. The highlight of the plane ride back was Mail Call. Various students from throughout the district wrote letters to the WWII vets participating in our trip. All of these letters were delivered on the flight home. For me, the real highlight of the trip home was Mr. D's "last story" for Aspen and me. He rummaged through his wallet to find a small, yellowed prayer book that he was given before his first battle. He shared with us that he didn't tell his wife about it for years. He thought she would think him foolish because "a sinner like me" carried it with him throughout the war, yet he acknowledged that it got him through the war. The prayer book had a note attached to it telling what it was. I wonder if it is there for his son or daughter, so that when they go through his wallet upon his death, they'll know what it is. I wonder if he's told them about it. I feel privileged that he shared it with me. I hope I haven't spoiled a secret for him, but I doubt his son reads my blog :)
The low points of the flight back were two fold. One, the weather in DFW was terrible. Tornado sirens were going off, the wind was howling, and hail was falling. We should have landed at 9:30. We were in a holding pattern for a bit, then sent to Houston for more fuel and to wait out the storm. When we were finally allowed to leave Houston around 12:30 am, we had to take on additional fuel so that we could fly around the storm that had moved out of DFW, but into the path from DFW to Houston. We touched down at 1:30. By 2:30, we were on the buses back to the stadium. I picked Gavin up from Glenda's house at 3 and got to bed at 3:30. (Dave was in San Francisco on business, so Granny Glenda saved the day by taking care of Gavin all evening.) Gavin woke me up at 7:30 the next morning. Gavin could have (and should have) stayed with Glenda all night. But, I really wanted to see him before he went to school for the day and I knew that I couldn't pop in on him in school later in the morning without tears ensuing when I tried to leave him. So, I woke him up at 3am. I'm a bad mama.
The second low point--dinner. The quality was equal to breakfast, however, we were practically the last people to be served. We had to smell the food as it was carted past us to those in the front of the plane. It was torture. Mr. D began to make jokes about setting a trip wire in the aisle to get food diverted to us. We were hungry. So hungry that taking a picture of the ravioli or chicken and mashed potatoes before we ate it was entirely out of the question.
I hope to get more pictures. If I do, you'll get a wordless post. (Goodness knows this one has lots of words.)
For the first part of the game, he actually kept his sunglasses on.
We hadn't been in our seats long when Gavin announced, "I need popcorn." Who are we to deny the boy some popcorn? He put a hurtin' on the popcorn (with some help from Mama and Daddy). Seriously, he was mesmerized as he ate the popcorn and watched the game.
Dave bought some tickets down close so Gavin could really see the game. We were on row 19.
Gavin did sit in his seat for a while, but I don't think he could see.
About the 5th inning, he was getting antsy, so he and I went out for a fresh diaper and ice cream. By then the shade was covering our seats. So, he sat in his seat eating his $1 Blue Bell ice cream cone--that was the deal of the day. People around us were very complimentary of his behavior during the game.
But more importantly, the ice.
We had to wait for our little singer to hear "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning. 
But more importantly, the ice.
We had to wait for our little singer to hear "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning. 
We watched a little more, then left after the 7th inning because the boy was getting violent (aka tired).
I guess Gavin had had enough, when we started packing up and telling him that it was time to go, he started waving to the field saying, "Bye bye baseball game." And, he didn't pout when we left as he has been doing lately when he doesn't like something. 
The big stars during Heavy Equipment Day were, well, big. First G climbed aboard an old fire engine.
