Photo by Allison Potter
Vietnam-era veteran Rich Elsen kisses his wife, Harriet, at Wilmington International Airport upon arriving home from an Honor Flight on April 30, 2022. Elsen was one of 69 veterans traveling with Honor Flight of the Cape Fear volunteer guardians, including Cathy Doty (middle), for the one-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C.’s war monuments. A crowd of nearly 1,000 friends, relatives and community members gathered at the airport to greet the group when they returned.