Veteran grateful for Honor Flight

To the editor:

Outstanding, uplifting, memorable! These words come to mind when I think of the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight on April 21. It was organized to honor those who served in the military during the Korean War. Wherever we went there were people lined up to offer their hand and thank us for our service.

As I walked down a line there was this little girl of 7 or 8 years old standing beside her mother. She looked up at me, offered her hand and said: 'Thanks for your service.” I took her hand, nodded, and said: 'You are very welcome.” Who wouldn't go through 'hell and high water” to protect the life and liberty of one such as she? That's really what it's all about.

At the Korean Memorial we saw statuary of men in the field with their steel helmets, rifles and ponchos. A grim sense of reality. Faded memories return. And then there was the Lincoln Memorial with our 16th president sitting high above eye-level, and looking down as if to speak, 'dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A turning point in our history. As we approached the Iwo Jima Memorial, I knew, as a former Marine that I would linger a bit longer. Those brave men from the greatest generation. Semper Fi!

To the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight staff, organizers, sponsors and the many greeters and hard working, dedicated volunteers, I say: Thanks for the memories. Yes, thanks for one great day!

Dave O'Rourke

Marion