Army veteran takes Honor Flight with daughter - also an Army vet
PORTLAND, Ore. — The South Willamette Valley Honor Flight takes off from Portland Friday, but the group of veterans is gathering Thursday night ahead of the big trip.
A lot of these veterans have never been to Washington, DC.
It’s a chance to visit the monuments and memorials and create memories they'll remember forever.
For one veteran and his guardian, it's a chance to share something unique together.
Dennis Harris and his daughter, Deanna Wright, are looking forward to sharing the experience of the Honor Flight.
“I'm over the moon being able to share it with my daughter,” Dennis tells us.
“It's for you to be honored,” Deanna says, “and I feel like I'm giving back, too.”
But this shared experience will go a little deeper for the father/daughter duo.
“Although the trip's for him because he's the veteran,” Deanna explains, “I'm also a veteran.”
Nearly 30 years after Dennis served his country, Deanna enlisted in the Army.
“I thought it was great that she was mature enough to go sign up and I was just automatically proud,” he recalls.
“We're definitely connected a little bit more because we have that shared experience,” she tells us.
And it’s not just that they both served in the Army.
“We both went into missiles, and we both were stationed in Germany,” she says.
Dennis manned Pershing missiles in Germany in the late 1960s.
“I had the lives of thousands at my fingertip,” he recalls, “and I never gave it a thought during that time. I would have done my job - whatever I had to do.”
Deanna was part of a patriot missile unit about 45 miles from where her father was stationed decades earlier.
“I wrote her almost every day telling her what to expect,” he says. “I would just write her a letter, kind of explain what to expect when she gets to where she's going, and I was so proud.”
“It was good pep talks,” she adds.
But now, as Dennis is set to be recognized for his service, it’s a different kind of pep talk.
“I don’t want to bust out crying,” he tells us.
“It's to celebrate you guys,” Deanna adds.
“It'll be a memory I'll take to the grave,” he says, his daughter adding, “that we can share together.”
They’ve shared so much - connected deeply - and now it’s time to create more memories.
They will have a special opportunity on Sunday when they visit Arlington National Cemetery as two of four veterans who will have the responsibility of laying the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
