LA CROSSE (WKBT) — For the 27th time, the Freedom Honor Flight flew 99 area veterans to Washington, D.C., for a chance to tour the monuments built in their honor.
Veterans, and their guardians, arrived at the La Crosse airport at 5 a.m. Saturday. Excitement was high.
“About a month ago when the gentleman called me and asked if I wanted to go, I about jumped through the phone I was so excited,” said Kathy Nelson, a Vietnam veteran who attended the flight.
Kathy served as a stateside medic for soldiers returning home from Vietnam.
Early on, it was hard to be a Vietnam veteran. But this trip gives many of them the welcome home they never received.
“I feel like I have been accepted for what I did, and I think that is important. All these men and women, at one point in their life, wrote that check for the ultimate sacrifice. Some made it home, and some didn’t,” Kathy said. “They all deserve to be recognized.”
This is Kathy’s first Freedom Honor Flight, but her husband made the trip to D.C. four years ago.
Once the veterans arrived, they toured the memorials built in their honor.
The trip lasted one day, and the veterans were welcomed back to La Crosse late Saturday night.
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