San Marcos Mayor John Thomaides, Central Texas Returning Heroes President James Clements, Hays County Veteran Service Officer Jude Prather and our Hays County Veterans.
World War II Veterans and brothers Sam and Lucky Knutson lead the procession of veterans with Honor Flight Austin as they are cheered and feted through the terminal while making their way to the gate for their flight to W
Hays County veterans on Honor Flight
On Friday September 28th forty Hays County Veterans participated in the Austin Honor Flight #53 to Washington DC. This was a special Hays County flight of World War II, Korea and Vietnam Veterans who reside in Hays County. This was also a Memorial Flight that honored the late William “Bill” Kolbe, who passed away in February 2018. Bill was a WWII Army Veteran and a professor at Southwest Texas State University for over 40 years.
Our Hays County Veterans owes another great debt of gratitude for the work of Jude Prather and his team at the Hays County Veteran Service Office for organizing the Hays County Honor Flight.
The Austin Honor Flight Team did its typical spectacular job of organizing the trip of a lifetime for 40 WWII, Korean and Vietnam Veterans from Hays County. Jude Prather and his team raised over $40,000 from Hays County Supporters to cover the cost for the Veterans to travel to DC on Friday Sept. 28th and visit all the Military War Memorials including the: WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the Korean War Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. We also visited the Air Force Memorial, the Navy Memorial, the President Roosevelt Memorial and the Marine Corps Memorial.
The Hays County Honor Flight was further Honored to have Texas Representative Jason Isaac accompany us along with newly appointed 3rd Court of Appeals Justice Michael Toth (Major USMC) and San Marcos Mayor John Thomaides.
The veterans were honored to be greeted in DC at the WWII National Memorial by our Texas State Senator Donna Campbell, MD. Senator Campbell delivered the Keynote speech and welcome to Washington DC.
Following our tours of the Memorials we were further honored to attend the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery. Four of our Hays County Veterans participated in the Placing a Wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.