HEROS' JOURNEY

Barack Obama Stuns Veterans With Surprise Visit on Flight

The war heroes were surprised to hear the former president on the plane’s intercom.

Barack Obama surprised a group of veterans on an honor flight from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C. The trip was organized by the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit organization that provides travel for veterans and their families to visit monuments in and around D.C. The war heroes who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars were surprised to hear the former president on the plane’s intercom. “Hello, everybody,” he said as the passengers gasped from the former president’s recognizable voice. “What!” one person yelled in disbelief. “I just wanted to say thank you,” he said to the seventy-nine veterans and their families. A video uploaded to Obama’s Instagram showed him shaking their hands as they exited the plane. He presented them with a presidential challenge coin, as a gift of gratitude. Army veteran Joe Parr said, “I had tears in my eyes... I just couldn’t believe that there were that many people around that remembered us,” The former president shared in a statement: “The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day.”

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