WXII Doing the Honorable Thing for Vets

It being Veterans Day and all, we thought it appropriate to mention the story we have in the new B&C about WXII Greensboro-Winston Salem’s “Triad Flight of Honor” program, which sends World War II veterans from the #46 DMA to Washington for a full day of meeting with their Congressmen, seeing the various war memorials in the nation’s capital, and spending quality time with their fellow soldiers.The veterans are seen off at Greensboro’s airport by huge, cheering crowds, and get the same hero’s welcome upon their return later that day. WXII President/General Manager Hank Price told me it’s just about the most emotional thing he’s ever seen in all his years in television.

Working with the Rotary Club and an outfit called HonorAir, Price says he’ll keep running the flights until all the World War II veterans in his market who want to make the trip have done so.

We got an email from a Winston Salem woman earlier this week who had read the article and was interested in signing her father up for the excursion. “My dad wants to go on the trip to see the WWII monument in Washington,” she wrote. “Do you know how he can get signed up to go?”

Price says any WWII veterans from his market–or friends and relatives of a WWII veteran–are encouraged to drop him a line if they want to participate. He’s at hprice@hearst.com and all registration information is available at triadflightofhonor.com or wxii12.com.

Speaking of spending quality time with the veterans, I got to chat with a few participants in the Flight of Honor program last week, which was fun. Ivey Redmon, who’s 86, spent 17 months in combat during World War II. He was on the Oct. 28 flight out of Greensboro.

Redmon said stepping off the plane to 1,500 people cheering was something he’ll never forget.

“It made you stand up and be tall,” he said.