I mmersed in its own hustle-bustle environment, life in Washington, D.C., rarely slows down for anyone or anything. Traffic slows twice a day for the clogged inflow and exit of commuters, or for a Presidential motorcade.

On April 14, traffic ground to a halt as a full police phalanx of motorcycle cops and cars escorted the 6th Emerald Coast Honor Flight from the Reagan National Airport to the World War II Memorial. Tourists stopped and stared as the buses cruised silently by on empty streets, and even the most jaded of onlookers recognized that someone special was in town.

Over 100 WWII veterans and their Guardians were in our nation’s capital on a journey as silent and selfless as their service.

Coined “The Greatest Generation,” these World War II vets waited over half a century for their country to honor them with a memorial, and many of the men and women on the flight were seeing it for the first time.

ABOVE: Brothers Joe, 82, and Hank Gubitos, 87, attended the flight together. Joe was on the USS Yorktown when it was sunk in the Battle of Midway, and waited nearly an hour to be rescued. Photos, story by Vici Papajohn, Splash! magazine “I can’t believe this, everything is coming back to me – the good times and the bad,” said Joe Gubitos, 82. He and his brother Hank, 87, attended the flight together.

For many, the flight was like a pilgrimage, the first time many vets had allowed themselves to remember. And it was a time to honor friends and comrades left behind.

“I never let myself think about it, I never cried. All those beautiful boys that never came back. I remember when my son asked me why I cried when my dog died, but I didn’t cry when my mother died. I never let myself cry over people, I couldn’t. Today I cried for them all, and I remembered them all,” shared “Cat” Catron, 90. “The is the first time I’ve cried.”

BELOW: Ft. Walton WWII veteran Charles Risher chats with Tony McFarlane, Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Staff Operations, prior to the flight. Catron had over 1,000 hours as a bomber pilot in the Pacific.

A highlight for all the veterans on board was the mail call on the flight up and upon departure for home. Mail call was an important moment for soldiers during the war and had no less impact for flight participants.

Billy Booker Belcher responded tearfully to a hand written and colored note card provided by an elementary school student from Escambia County.

“I’m just overwhelmed emotionally by the effort put forward by these school children,” Belcher said. “They raised money, wrote us letters. I cannot describe what the support they’ve shown means to me.”

TOP: U.S. Air Charter Captain Tim Brumford, LEFT, chats with Honor Flight Veteran Leonard Swartz. Brumford bids for the Honor Flights as his father fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The Escambia County School children raised $140,000 to fully fund the 6th Emerald Coast Honor Flight, and attendees received mail call communications from elementary, middle and high school students.

During their visit to the memorial, many vets were asked for photographs with children, or thanked by passers-by. Vets on the flight made friends with each other and even with vets from other state’s delegations.

Raiford C. “Ray” Sibley, 82, bumped into a comrade from the Georgia delegation of WWII vets visiting last Wednesday. Common ground was immediately found as the Georgia vet attended boot camp in Pensacola in 1943.

“It’s a small world,” Dickens told Sibley, “I loved coming through Pensacola training. I’m sure every day boys pour through this memorial who were trained in your home town.”

MIDDLE: Billy B. Belcher is moved by a hand-written and colored note card after “mail call” on the flight to Washington, D.C. “I just can’t believe how wonderful this whole day has been,” praised Sibley. “The memorial was beautiful and it all just felt a little bit like heaven.”
BOTTOM: Cinnamon Holderman, Emerald Coast Honor Flight Executive Director.