For one D.C. day, veterans from Eastern Iowa see all they can see

When you see the sights in Washington with an Honor Flight, you get the full motorcade experience. Wherever we went, our three-bus caravan had a Park Police motorcycle up front, siren blaring, and another cop at the back. I'm sure passers-by were wondering, 'Who is that?”

We were 77 Korean War-era veterans, four World War II vets, three Vietnam-era vets and the assorted helpers and tour guides who were making their whirlwind trip an enjoyable one. The vets were from Eastern Iowa and had landed around 10 on a Tuesday morning last month after flying in from Cedar Rapids. When they got off the Sun Country Airlines flight at National Airport, they were greeted by Andy Leighton playing patriotic songs on his French horn and a small crowd waving American flags.

Who were the flag wavers?

'They're departing passengers we dragooned into supporting us,” said Alan Lewis, of Washington, a volunteer tour guide.

In their matching red polo shirts and white ball caps, the veterans looked like the world's oldest school group. Many of them had never been to Washington before.

And they wouldn't stay long now. They had barely 12 hours to fit in the World War II, Korean and Vietnam memorials; the Lincoln Memorial; the Women in Military Service Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery; the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns; the Iwo Jima statue; and the Air Force Memorial, along with drive-bys of other D.C. attractions.

Thus the police escort. They had a plane to catch at 9:30 p.m.

The veterans had come from Iowa City and Anamosa, from Marengo and Keystone, and other Iowa towns. Some knew each other from their local VFW or American Legion, but many didn't. They'd signed up for the trip - free for them, thanks to donors - up to two years ago. And now here they were, in a motorcade.

When they debuted at the World War II memorial for a photo op near the column engraved with 'Iowa,” they were surprised to find the path interrupted by a tan, well-dressed man - pinstripe pants, bone-white shirt, cuff links - seated in a wooden swivel chair. It was former senator Bob Dole of Kansas. He often greets fellow veterans at the memorial.

'I've been to all 99 counties in Iowa,” said the onetime presidential candidate when he learned where the vets were from. (Later he told me: 'You know, I won Iowa twice.” He didn't sound bitter. Politics has changed, he said. 'In my day, we used to reach across the aisle.” He hoped politicians might again, someday.)

A foreigner, curious about the line of people waiting to have their picture taken with the old man in the swivel chair, asked: 'Excuse me, who is that?”

That is a retired politician, a onetime presidential candidate, a decorated World War II Army veteran, he was told.

It was this last descriptor that appealed most to the man, who turned out to be the defense attache from the Slovakian Embassy.

'I'm a fighter pilot,” he said.

What do you fly?

'MiG-29s,” he said. 'We still have MiG-29s!”

Then he, too, had his picture taken next to Bob Dole.

We all shuffled back onto the bus for a spin toward the Capitol, then up Pennsylvania Avenue NW, then around the Tidal Basin and past the Jefferson Memorial, before stopping at the Lincoln. We ate our box lunches in our seats.

'The veterans are a humble group, and a lot of them you have to convince to put in an application,” said Roger Uthoff, treasurer of Eastern Iowa Honor Flight, one of the organizations that funnel vets to the District of Columbia as part of the national Honor Flight network. 'Our feeling is, anyone who put on a uniform deserves this.”

We drove to Arlington and watched the changing of the guard in silence. Then, a spontaneous gesture: As the vets walked, limped and rolled their way back to the waiting buses, 42 eighth-graders from the Rejoice Christian Academy, on their school trip from Tulsa, Oklahoma, lined the sidewalks and reached out to shake hands.

'Thank you for your service,” the students said again and again.

Some of the vets raised their right hands to their foreheads in salute, a simple gesture learned long ago and never forgotten.

' John Kelly is a Washington Post columnist. Comments: john.kelly@washpost.com

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<URL destination="http://thegazette.com/subject/opinion/guest-columnists/eastern-iowa-honor-flight-looking-back-looking-forward-and-thanks-20150115">Guest column: Looking back, looking forward and thanks