WWII Veterans Honored on 70th Anniversary of D-Day

Written by David DiCrescenzo on . Posted in Florida News

As an American Patriot, I can’t think of anything better to do on a Saturday evening than to welcome home our veterans. Whether they are returning from a recent deployment in the middle-east or from a special trip to DC and Virginia to remember their fallen comrades from past wars, it is heart-warming to see their faces light up when they come up the ramp from the terminal and see the cheering crowds of those on hand to welcome them.

Such was the case Saturday night at Palm Beach International Airport as upwards of 3500 cheering men, women, and children; Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, family members, members of the Knights of Columbus, Bag Pipers, ROTC Cadets, current and former members of the Military, and so many more all showed up to say “thank you” to 94 members of ‘The Greatest Generation’ as they came home on an Honor Flight.  

On Thursday morning, they departed from PBI to attend the ceremonies commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion of the Allied Forces into Europe, which led to victory over the Nazis less than a year later.  The Honor Flights are always very special, however this particular one, a two day event, was even more so.  

After two days of visiting places like Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and of course the World War II Memorial, and being treated like the returning heroes they are all around the town, they came home.  The individual stories of the past two days are countless.  I talked to a few of them; guys like Joe Garber who told me about all the autographs he and they signed and how he had been a POW during the last year of the war, about all the thanks they received, the photos they took, and the hospitality.  I heard of another story, which I’ll be following up on soon concerning the passing of a very special jacket.  There was so much more.  However, the real story of tonight was the final surprise for these men.

They didn’t know was what waited for them in the terminal.  You see, few of them are aware of the greeting they have in store.  They don’t know that so many people are waiting to cheer for them, hug them, shake their hands, and just thank them for a job well done.  As they came down the hall, some in wheel chairs, others walking, and every one of them just reaching out to as many as they could, throwing kisses to the crowd while shedding tears of joy….lots of them.  

For the most part, these veterans, many of them survivors of that fateful day, were just scared kids barely out of High School in 1944; some of them probably didn’t even shave yet, but they answered the call and did what they had to do, so that we could have the chance to do what we all do.  They became battle hardened men that day, and they carried home the impossible to forget memories of fallen comrades and the hellish nightmares of war.

Sometimes it becomes impossible as a reporter to simply take notes and scribe what I see, and not get caught up in the moment.  I love these guys, and I fully understand that if not for what they did at that crucial moment in our history; if they hadn’t risked their very lives and run toward the gunfire on our behalf, if they hadn’t been successful, the freedoms we enjoy would have come to an end and instead of being our ‘Greatest Generation,’ they would have been our final generation.  We can never adequately repay them.  God bless them one and all.