{"id":4855,"date":"2019-06-04T11:38:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=4855"},"modified":"2019-06-04T11:38:09","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:38:09","slug":"american-airlines-brings-d-day-veterans-to-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=4855","title":{"rendered":"American Airlines Brings D-Day Veterans to France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

World\u2019s largest airline honors Greatest Generation 75 years after beach landings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Eight veterans of the D-Day invasion, which marked a major turning point in World War II, arrived in France on Monday and Tuesday aboard American Airlines flights from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Miami (MIA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airline hosted many of them and their guests at a luncheon Sunday at the CR Smith Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The event included a Color Guard flag presentation and a national anthem performance. After lunch, these esteemed members of the Greatest Generation traveled to Paris (CDG), where they were greeted with cheers, waving flags and a water cannon salute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThese veterans fought so bravely to give us the freedom to fly that we have today,\u201d said Philippe Serafino, General Manager at CDG for American Airlines. \u201cOur team members in Paris are always looking for ways \u2014 big and small \u2014 to express their infinite gratitude to the individuals who fought to liberate France and serve the Allied cause during the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Paris, the group, which includes two veterans who haven\u2019t been back to Normandy since the days following June 6, 1944, will join their fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen to observe reenactments of the invasion and participate in ceremonies commemorating their bravery and service to the nation and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI feel this will be closure for me because I had turned down going a long time ago,\u201d said Jack Gutman, a U.S. Navy corpsman first class on D-Day. \u201cHaving my son with me to experience what I went through and for him to see it in a different light and understand what I went through is so important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m overwhelmed and speechless,\u201d added Carl Felton, a U.S. Navy petty officer first class on D-Day. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more excited and more humbled with all of the praise that has been heaped upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The flights and luncheon are part of a larger initiative American is supporting alongside Let Freedom Ring, a nonprofit organization founded by D-Day veteran George Ciampa, who is on the trip. Four American team members are also volunteering their personal time to accompany the D-Day veterans in support of that organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter serving 27 years and multiple deployments, I have a small sense of sacrifice these World War II veterans gave to this country,\u201d said ORD-based First Officer John Gorse, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force who is on the trip. \u201cTheir service truly saved the world from the darkest of days. I\u2019m sure the feeling they felt on that day 75 years ago will come rushing back and there is no way to describe that terror. They survived so we could survive as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eight veterans of the D-Day invasion, which marked a major turning point in World War II, arrived in France on Monday and Tuesday aboard American Airlines flights from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Miami (MIA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[797,89,1836,4957,868,1103],"tags":[118,116,160,3609,5026,1128,766,243,760,207,840,2438,1130,5024,885,303,1674,412,1131,100,5025,3950,1564,2755,761],"class_list":["post-4855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airline-news","category-aviation-news","category-defense-news","category-global-politics","category-transportation-news","category-travel-news","tag-airlines","tag-american","tag-aviation","tag-beach","tag-ciampa","tag-d-day","tag-dallas","tag-dfw","tag-fort","tag-france","tag-george","tag-ii","tag-invasion","tag-landings","tag-mia","tag-miami","tag-museum","tag-news","tag-normandy","tag-paris","tag-smith","tag-veterans","tag-war","tag-world","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4860,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions\/4860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}