Honor Flight veterans welcomed with fanfare at Atwater’s Castle Airport

Thousands of people cheered, waved flags and held up signs welcoming home 66 veterans as they exited the Central Valley Honor Flight plane on Wednesday at Castle Airport.

The veterans returned from three days in the nation’s capital, where they spent time at memorials for service men and women. The trip was provided free of charge from the nonprofit Honor Flight organization.

Dorenda Swinney and her husband, Dan, who live in the Lake McClure boat community, stood among the crowd waiting to welcome their neighbor, Bill Meyers, as he left the plane. She said the 88-year-old was looking forward to the trip.

“He’s been so excited for two weeks he could hardly contain himself,” she said.

Dorenda Swinney said Meyers was an Army paratrooper in World War II. He volunteered to jump out of planes because it earned him an extra $50 a month, she said.

Meyers also took part in the Raid on Los Banos, an internment camp in the Philippines that held hundreds of prisoners.

Organizers of the Honor Flights aim to take as many veterans as possible to see the monuments in Washington, D.C. The nonprofit group raises about $1,500 per veteran to cover their transportation, lodging and meals.

Also in the welcoming crowd was Petty Officer 1st Class Dylan Moore, dressed in his uniform. The 22-year-old from Lemoore is stationed in Washington, but drove down to welcome his grandfather, Manuel Villagran, 89, of Hanford.

His grandfather, an Army veteran, had been preparing for weeks to go on the trip. “He was really excited,” Moore said.

Patriotic music played throughout the ceremony as the veterans walked through a column of waving flags. Since the inaugural flight in October 2013, the Honor Flight organization has completed five trips, with Wednesday’s being the first to leave from Castle Airport rather than Fresno.

William Louie, 94, of Firebaugh was one of the first veterans to leave the plane after it touched down. The Army veteran served in Germany as a medic. “This is terrific,” he said, surrounded by cheering onlookers. “I never expected anything like that.”

The tour took the men and women to the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial. The veterans also saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, among other sights.

Another veteran, Betty Briney of Merced, said getting to visit the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C., was particularly special. “That trip was great,” the 85-year-old. “The women’s memorial was fantastic.”

The Korean War veteran, who also served as a medic, said it had been a decade since she visited the capital. Returning to a cheering crowd at Castle was more than she expected. “I knew they were going to be here, but not like that,” she said.

This story was originally published October 29, 2014 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Honor Flight veterans welcomed with fanfare at Atwater’s Castle Airport."