SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — 90 veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War were flown to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials built in their honor — and came home to a greeting they will never forget.
Dozens of family members packed a San Diego airport, some waiting for hours, to welcome veterans returning from an Honor Flight.
The nonprofit program flies veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials honoring their service.
For Brenda Hehr and her sister Sandra Silt, the day was especially emotional. Their father, Ronald Marben, was selected at the last minute to join the flight after someone else was injured and could not go.
"We've been crying a lot for the last week. We had goose pimples when we found out that he was coming," Brenda Hehr said.
Marben served in the Navy during the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1967. He said his homecoming from Vietnam was a painful memory.
"We came home from Vietnam and no one said anything to us," Marben said.
"You couldn't, you couldn't even wear your uniform because people would be yelling at you," Marben said.
But Marben said this welcome — years later — makes up for it.
"When you're walking down the street and you got children coming up and shaking your hand just out of the clear blue, it's just unreal," Marben said.
Marben described the trip itself as nothing short of extraordinary.
"Everything was just fantastic," Marben said.
"I'm blessed that it'll be the most important thing happening maybe in my life," Marben said.
His daughter Sandra Silt said the moment was long overdue for her father.
"The pain my dad has had and has really kind of kept in his whole life and now he can just stand in front and be, be proud," Silt said.
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