Four local veterans traveled to Washington D.C. on Saturday, Oct. 9, on an Honor Flight. Honor Flight is a network that works to bring every United States veteran to Washington, D.C. to see all of the war memorials and many of the national monuments there.

Several veterans from our area have gone on this flight. This time, Glenn Talsma and Daryl Hanenburg from Edgerton, LeRoy Buys of Chandler, along with Merlyn Buys of Luverne (formerly of Leota) were on the trip.

The evening before the flight, a banquet was held at the Sioux Falls Arena for the veterans and their spouses. Each veteran’s name was called and they were thanked for their service.

They flew out on Saturday morning at 4:30 a.m. from the Sioux Falls airport. The veterans were assigned to travel partner in small groups of three vets with one partner. Some of the travel partners were from the D. C. area. Daryl’s travel partner lived and worked there, so he pointed out interesting features they otherwise would have missed. Cal Brouwer of Edgerton was also a travel partner for the group.  Merlyn’s travel partner was also from this area. His name was Marlin Sjaarda, and he is a cousin of Nick Sjaarda from Hills.

The veterans also received shirts and booklets that told all about the places they would be seeing in Washington, D.C.

They were given a sack lunch breakfast on the plane. When they landed in Washington D.C. they were welcomed by the fire trucks spraying water over their plane. From there, they took four color-coded buses for their day of touring. Each veteran had a colored lanyard that corresponded to the bus he or she was to ride on.

Their first stop was the Iwo Jima Memorial, which is located outside Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington Ridge Park, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. LeRoy commented that the statues were very impressive and both Daryl and Merlyn also commented that this was their favorite memorial.

After viewing that memorial, they went into Arlington National Cemetery, which was larger than they all imagined with rolling hills, some of which were quite steep. LeRoy noted that the navy and marine soldiers that had been lost at sea were given markers on the steepest hills, so there was no grave under those markers.

From there they went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the changing of the guard. This was a very solemn ceremony and all of the veterans were awestruck. LeRoy commented that he could hear the click of the guards’ heels on the pavement and that was very memorable. Merlyn commented that this was also his favorite memorial.

From there, the group went to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, where they took a group photo. It was there that the local men had a nice surprise. Ken Verbrugge, a native of this area and a veteran as well, met them at the Lincoln Memorial. He and his wife Judy had heard about their trip and wanted to surprise them. That was pretty special for these local veterans.

The next stop was the Air Force Museum, where they received lunch. This time it was a warm pulled pork sandwich. The weather was also nice, so the lunch break was very enjoyable. The next stop after lunch was the Navy Museum.