Veterans Get 1st Visit To WW II Memorial

Veterans Get 1st Visit To WW II Memorial
'First Coast Honor Air' Provides Trip To Retired Servicemen

POSTED: Monday, May 18, 2009

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A little more than a week before Memorial Day, a group of 40 World War Two veterans from northeast Florida took a special trip to Washington, D.C., to see the memorial honoring their war efforts.

Paul Casteel was among those who went to the nation's capitol, thanks to a group known as Honor Air. Casteel, a Navy veteran, said he'd seen a lot in his day. During the war, he saw American troops die, fighting for their country. "It was so bad over there that you can't imagine."

Casteel's seen Marines storm the beaches of Iwo Jima and he's seen the ship he served on nearly sink. "We were torpedoed, bombed, strafed," he said.

On May 16, Casteel got to see a token of the American people's appreciation for veterans like him, for the first time. The 40 veterans from the Jacksonville area joined others who had traveled to D.C. this weekend, from around the country.
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