Local vets enjoy quick D.C. trip

Fairway Village — The nonprofit Honor Flight Network transported 36 area military veterans and companions from Portland International Airport to Washington, D.C. on Aug. 3 for a whirlwind one-day visit to many key attractions — especially the World War II Memorial that opened in 2004. The group was “taken aback by the solemn beauty of the memorial with its enormous oval pool and twin fountains,” said Wilbert Kalmbach, a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps who made the trip. The veteran visitors had just one serious task to accomplish: to locate Kilroy, that famously halfway-hidden mascot of World War II soldiers, as he peered out from somewhere in the site. After that they visited the Vietnam and Korean war memorials, the Lincoln and Air Force memorials, the Iwo Jima statue, Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknowns.