Dear Arlene,
I would like to thank you and your amazing group for an overwhelmingly emotional experience on the Honor Flight to Washington, DC.
From the police escort to the Ft. Lauderdale airport, the flight to BWI. and the excellent active duty military escorts and Maryland Police escort to DC. The Organization and coordination of such an effort was truly awesome.
The monuments in DC, Iwo Jima, the Vietnam Memorial brought many emotional memories from the buried recesses of my brain. The Korean War Memorial, hauntingly reinforced those memories. The delicious meals gave a break from the intensity.
Mail call at 3000 ft was yet another surprise. Letters from my sister in NYC, and Brother (Navy pilot vet) in California, were a big surprise as were the politicians letters, and the notes from school kids. I hope to respond to a few of those.
The saluting fire trucks and the reception at all FLL was a thorough shock. Seeing Debbie Wasserman Schulz and more active Military in uniform brought back the memories experienced in DC. But the huge crowd of civilians shaking my hand and welcoming me home, only fifty years later, brought tears and a cathartic reaction to me that I have not yet fully understood. The entire trip was exhausting, but a positively existential, beautiful experience.
Again, thank you all, Sincerely, Mike McLoughlin.