MUSCATINE, IA -- A U.S. NAVY Veteran is celebrating his 99th birthday on this week's Eastern Iowa Honor Flight.
Lemoyne Hucke turns 99 years-old this week and all he wanted for his birthday was to go on an honor flight. Hucke is joining other veterans from the area in traveling to Washington D.C. to visit memorials of the wars they fought in.
Lemoyne was working at the Rock Island Arsenal during World War II when he received his draft letter to report to the USS Butner for three and a half years. He was supposed to head to Japan, but was diverted to India when President Truman decided to drop atomic bombs on the island.
After the war, he returned to Muscatine, Iowa to raise his two sons with his wife Gloria. His family was determined to honor his service by getting him on the honor flight leaving on his birthday, but feared they were too late in requesting a ticket. Two weeks before the flight, the family received a call that they had saved him a spot.
Honor Flights are sponsored by the non profit honor flight network. The organization works to fly veterans to Washington, DC cost-free for the day to visit the memorials dedicated to the war in which they served.
For more information on Honor Flights visit: https://www.honorflight.org
,quality(10),blur(50))