A Guthrie County resident was one of around 200 World War II, Korean, and Vietnam War veterans who visited Washington, D.C. last week on the Central and Western Iowa Honor Flight.

Guthrie County District 4 Supervisor J.D. Kuster went on the trip, which started with a dinner May 20th at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Then the next day he flew to D.C. where he visited several war memorials, Arlington Cemetery, and other monuments in a day-long trip. Kuster is a U.S. Air Force veteran who served during the Vietnam War. He shares what was most impactful from this trip, “And at each memorial we had people coming up to us saying ‘Thank you,’ wanting to shake our hands. That was probably the most impressing on me was that wasn’t just older adults there were a lot of children that wanted to thank us.”

Kuster adds that the veterans who were mostly from the Vietnam era, received a large reception of people when the flight landed in both D.C. and Des Moines, a large contrast from 40 years ago. This was the 14th Central and Western Iowa Honor Flight, which was free to participating veterans.