LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, nearly 20 surviving World War II veterans were honored in a big way. Eighteen service members were taken on a flight in a 1940s B-25 bomber, used by the U.S. in the war.
Veterans like Lee Smith, who will turn 100 next year, were among those who participated in the flight at Louisville’s Bowman Field.
“I’ve dreamed of this day. I gave up thinking it’d never happened, and here it is,” Smith said. “And this is just a day that I will never forget.”
Smith trained to be a radar operator when he joined the Army Air Corps. Scarlet fever would prevent him from being deployed overseas, but it never stopped his interest in aviation.
Thursday’s flight would be his first in a B-25, something he says he’s always dreamed of doing.
“And I wonder why I lived to be 99 years old. Now, I know why,” Smith said.
This event was put on by Honor Flight Bluegrass, which typically flies veterans to war memorials in Washington, D.C.. Organizers say donations made Thursday’s event possible and helped get the plane, maintained by the Commemorative Air Force, to Louisville.
“These men are living history of what they did for us. They truly saved the world. And we sometimes forget that. And we owe these gentlemen everything,” Jeff Thoke, chairman of Honor Flight Bluegrass said.
Shortly after the first flight took off with Smith on board, his daughter Laura spoke about what this meant to her father.
“Oh, it’s just so exciting,” she said. “I mean, it’s something Dad has waited for, for 99 years, so, you know, you can wish and it’ll happen.”
Once he landed, Smith said he quite enjoyed his flight, adding he wasn’t emotional in the air. Instead, he says it was “Just fun, I did it.”
Thoke believes there are only around 100-thousand WWII veterans who are still alive. The youngest veterans from the war are now in their late 90s.