By 09:00 we were at the WWII Memorial in DC after the ninety minute drive from Culpeper. There was a contingency of us Texas Flying Legends Museum ground crew present to partake in the ceremonies. We were fortunate to have seats reserved for us but in a way, it forced our hand photographically. Our movements were restricted since we weren’t press and not knowing we’d be doing this, hadn’t applied for credentials for this portion of the ceremonies. And as life turned out, it worked out perfectly. By now you’ve read one of the thousand accounts that have been broadcasted and printed and I can tell you they are not very accurate. That’s because the emotions that enveloped this event were beyond description!
The sun was brutal, the heat took its tool and being wedged into the granite memorial intensified it all. In looking for moments that I could share that might tell the story, I took many a photograph and of all of them, this one expressed the best that I could photographically the emotions of the morning. Hopefully you can hear the story without my telling it. It was just one of thousands of special moments amongst families and the generations gathered to celebrate what the greatest generation accomplished seventy years ago.
And one of the greatest personal awards for me was to watch our son Jake take on this tremendous project and just knock it out of the park! It was fun to basically sit in the back seat and watch him drive as he went after the big story, small story and the personal story of the entire week that would shortly be summed up in the big flyover. I will always be thankful for being there, on the ground and just an observer. All those memories are exposed forever on the thin emulsion of my mind.