SPOKANE, Wash. — Inland Northwest veterans were welcomed home after a trip to Washington D.C. to visit war memorials built in their honor as part of this year's Honor Flight.
The local non-profit escorted more than 100 veterans on the trip from April 25-26.
The non-profit was grounded due to COVID-19 restrictions for the past two years. Peggy Hansen, wife of late veteran David Hansen, said her husband was scheduled to join the flight before COVID. David passed away before he could get his chance.
"Our son, who was planning on being an escort for my husband, offered up to go as an escort for another vet and he is wearing a jacket that my husband made for this flight," Peggy Hansen said.
David's son, Bruce Hansen, expressed just how emotional the experience was for him.
"I was on the brink of tears for almost the whole time we were gone," Bruce Hansen said. "It really means a lot to me to be able to get to go even even in service of somebody else."
Other veterans expressed their gratitude in the warm welcome they received.
"This is so much different than what I got in 1973 coming into O'Hare field and I can't believe it," one veteran said. "It's wonderful."