![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/American-Airlines-Return-to-Normandy-2-3-060419-485x300.jpg\")
The airline hosted many of them and their guests at a\nluncheon on the Sunday before, at the CR Smith Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The\nevent included a Color Guard flag presentation and a national anthem\nperformance. After lunch, these esteemed members of the Greatest Generation\ntraveled to Paris (CDG), where they were greeted with cheers, waving flags and\na water cannon salute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese veterans fought so bravely to give us the freedom to\nfly that we have today,\u201d said Philippe Serafino, General Manager at CDG for\nAmerican Airlines. \u201cOur team members in Paris are always looking for ways \u2014 big\nand small \u2014 to express their infinite gratitude to the individuals who fought\nto liberate France and serve the Allied cause during the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/American-Airlines-Return-to-Normandy-1-3-060419-485x300.jpg\")
In Paris, the group, which included two veterans who haven\u2019t\nbeen back to Normandy since the days following June 6, 1944, joined their\nfellow soldiers, sailors and airmen to observe reenactments of the invasion and\nparticipate in ceremonies commemorating their bravery and service to the nation\nand the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel this will be closure for me because I had turned\ndown going a long time ago,\u201d said Jack Gutman, a U.S. Navy corpsman first class\non D-Day. \u201cHaving my son with me to experience what I went through and for him\nto see it in a different light and understand what I went through is so\nimportant to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m overwhelmed and speechless,\u201d added Carl Felton, a U.S.\nNavy petty officer first class on D-Day. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more excited and more\nhumbled with all of the praise that has been heaped upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flights and luncheon were part of a larger initiative\nAmerican is supporting alongside Let Freedom Ring, a nonprofit organization\nfounded by D-Day veteran George Ciampa, who is on the trip. Four American team\nmembers also volunteered their personal time to accompany the D-Day veterans in\nsupport of that organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter serving 27 years and multiple deployments, I have a\nsmall sense of sacrifice these World War II veterans gave to this country,\u201d\nsaid ORD-based First Officer John Gorse, a retired lieutenant colonel in the\nU.S. Air Force who was on the trip. \u201cTheir service truly saved the world from\nthe darkest of days. I\u2019m sure the feeling they felt on that day 75 years ago\nwill come rushing back and there is no way to describe that terror. They\nsurvived so we could survive as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eight veterans of the D-Day invasion, which marked a major turning point in World War II, arrived in France last week aboard American Airlines flights from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Miami (MIA). The airline hosted many of them and their guests at a luncheon on the Sunday before, at the CR Smith Museum in Fort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Aircraft-Exterior-AA-Aircraft-Tail-Terminal-II-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13068,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13064\/revisions\/13068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}