I am a photographer as well as many other things in my life. Photography is a joy and a pleasure for my spirit. I am also part of a veteran family. My spouse, children, fathers, and brother are all veterans.

I am always seeking ways to learn more about photography and help vets. Puget Sound Honor Flight gives me a way to do both.

Puget Sound Honor Flight is an organization affiliated with the Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization whose mission is “To celebrate America’s veterans by inviting them to share in a day of honor at our nation’s memorials”.

Puget Sound Honor Flight / About Us – Honor Flight Network

Now that you know the mission and reasoning behind Honor Flight and me, let me share a little more from my personal experience.

Working as a volunteer photographer, capturing the departure and arrival of these honor flights for the last two years.

Catching happy smiles, excited that they are going for the first time or going again.

Asking vets, “What are you most excited about seeing?”

“Everything!”  Is the most common response.

Who are the vets going with? Their children, grandchildren, family, or assigned guardians.

Catching images of the vets when they are tired and just want to go home.

Capturing happy smiles or misty eyes when they receive a bundle of mail at “mail call” on the plane ride home.

Images of happiness as they light up when they are welcomed home with ceremony, friends, family, cheers, signs, and even bagpipes.

I have been honored to be able to be a part of so many of the things below with PSHF.

  • Watching the tears at the Vietnam Wall. The excitement of meeting like-minded vets, who may have been in the same place they were decades ago.
  • Watching brothers, even triplets (yes, Triplets) visit and fly together.
  • Witness our women vets, usually small in number but powerful in spirit.
  • Meeting 75 Veterans and their Guardians.
  • Meeting the Board and staff of the PSHF who pull off this magical endeavor.
  • Taking three buses with the veterans and PSHF crew (medics, captains, and honor guard, to name a few).
  • Getting this whole group of people to these memorials built in their honor, that until now they may have never seen, except in the movies.

There’s so much more I could say about this organization and the positive energy I get from being able to take pictures during these special moments, but I’d like to leave you with this.

Saying thank you to a vet is always nice.

Saying “Welcome Home” and meaning it AND seeing the expressions on their faces, is unforgettable.

 

 

Images from PSHF Mission 40, 41 and 42