TULSA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Warriors Honor Flight returned from the nation's capital area on Tuesday night after a day filled with a tour of the memorials dedicated to our nation's Veterans.
The honor flight takes to the skies twice a year to see our nation's memorials. The itinerary is the same, and every movement is planned down to the minute.
But it's the stories within the plane that are always unique.
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The first stop on the tour is the Marine Corps War Memorial.
It means a lot to Marines but is particularly special to Ned Richard Parker.
"I became a marine when I was 21 years old because my Uncle Glen was on a stretcher at the bottom of (Mount) Suribachi when they raised the flag," Parker said.
The battle of Iwo Jima is a pivotal moment in American history and a decisive moment in Parker's future.
"My dad died when I was five years old, so my uncle Glen was my hero, and I always wanted to be like him," Parker said.
And after all he's seen and done, Parker said his uncle is proud of what he became.
The Veterans are all together on this trip.
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It does not matter what time they served, where, or with which branch of our nation's military. With all those differences, their feelings about taking the flight are the same.
"I don't deserve it," Parker said. "But I'm glad to be here."
"I tell you," Bill Stanfield said. "The guys that really sacrificed are the guys out there under those monuments, under those little slabs, all the way around. Those are the guys we should take our hats off to. They preserved, with their lives, so that we could do what we wanted to do."
Bill Stanfield was in Hawaii shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
His job was to help rebuild its defenses. Since then, he has been through a lot and is happy to have done it.
"I was proud to be a soldier," Stanfield said. "I mean, I liked soldiering. I would have probably stayed a little longer, but my wife wasn't too happy about going."
"I remember him telling me the story of PeeWee and how he didn't know his name," Taryn Abigail Evey, Honor Flight Guardian, said. "So, I'm just thinking like, 'it's so surreal that we found it.'"
Taryn Evey came on the flight with her grandfather, Donnie Dodson.
"It took me 57 years to find out what his real name was," Dodson said. "And now I have his real name. And for the first time, I'm going to see his name on this wall."
And that's what Dodson and his granddaughter did. Reconnecting with those friends he lost.
"He was my best friend," Dodson said.
These names are not only of friends but of those he worked to save.
"I can still remember them when they were young," Dodson said. "They're not just a name on the wall. They were somebody to me."
This trip to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial brought a sense of closure.
"Yeah, in a sense it is," Dodson said. "Because I know who he is. He's not just PeeWee no more. He's, I know who he is."
And through these 57 years, Dodson's memory of his friendships through it never faded.
"I love you, PeeWee," Dodson said.
The honor flight always seeks help taking Veterans to the memorials. For more details, visit the Oklahoma Warriors Honor Flight website here.
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