DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A parade in Palm Beach County served as a special salute for seven veterans who were unable to go on an annual flight to the nation capital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies and fire rescue vehicles took part in a caravan that drove past the veterans’ homes, Saturday morning.
Honor Flight South Florida aimed to ensure some of the nation’s oldest veterans had an unforgettable reminder of how grateful people are for their service.
The vets were supposed to be passengers on an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. last year. They would have had the chance to visit memorials that were built in honor of them and their fallen comrades.
But their trip was postponed due to the pandemic.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Bill Schwartz, a World War II vet, was the parade’s grand marshal.
“To see this kind of a welcome, I mean, it’s overbearing, and it’s wonderful,” he said, “It’s a little icing on the cake for those who served.”
Schwartz was part of the first wave on Normandy Beach and one of the few to survive that D-Day battle.
The caravan started in Delray Beach and stopped at the homes of the veterans in the Boca Raton area, where their families and neighbors gathered to join in the celebration.
Honor Flight South Florida plans on a few more honor parades to pay tribute to more veterans who had to have their Honor Flights postponed.
The organization plans to bring back Honor Flights later in 2021, with the first ones scheduled to go out in September.
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