Gulfport welcomed 53 veterans home from an Honor Flight

Coast residents gathered late Wednesday night at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport to welcome veterans home from Washington, D.C., WLOX reported. Fifty-three veterans who served during the Vietnam War and the Korean War had been on the Honor Flight. The trip gave them time at the memorials built for their service, and time with one another.

Pat Matthews, one of the veterans, told the station the trip was well organized, that people were kind, and that it went beyond what he had expected. He said the memorials were beautiful. People in the crowd said this was the thanks those veterans should have received when they first came home. Coordinator Laura Kennedy called the flight more than a trip. She called it a thank-you that had been a long time coming. A welcome for 53 people does not stand in for every veteran on the coast. It is the group this flight brought home.