On April 19 the participants in the Southeastern Minnesota Honor Flight attended an orientation meeting in Rochester. At this time we were told that when we arrived at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., one of the people who might be there to greet us would be former Kansas Sen. Robert Dole. We were also told not to even try to shake hands with the famous World War II veteran, political figure and Republican candidate for the presidency in1996.

As we left the buses on May 2 at 10:05 a.m., our time, we had the opportunity to meet Earl Morse, the man who started the very successful Honor Flight program five years ago. And not far away was Dole.

Because of the severe shoulder wound Dole received in April 1945 while serving as an officer with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division in northern Italy, Dole has almost zero use of his right arm. To discourage handshaking, he has always held a ballpoint pen in his clenched right hand. Thus, he used his left hand for handshaking.

Now, because of arthritis and other medical problems with his left arm, Dole has lost much use of this hand as well. To emphasize this, he has an elastic bandage around his lower left arm and wrist.

I went up to Dole, said hello, then dropped back.

I had taken the Tribune’s camera, with permission, so I started to take photos of Dole and the area veterans around him. One of those veterans was Bob Hahn of Albert Lea.

About this time, one of the ladies in our group told me to go over with the folks around Dole and she would take our photo with the Tribune’s camera. And that’s how the photo on page three of the Tribune’s May 4 issue evolved.

After being greeted by a large crowd of people, we entered the memorial through the Pacific arch, or entry.

The World War II Memorial was dedicated just five years ago this month. It’s situated on a 7.4-acre site around the revised Rainbow Pool. There are two arches (Pacific and Atlantic) to emphasize the war’s major theaters from 1941 to 1945. This memorial has many symbolic features in both stone structures and bronze sculptures. There are 24 bas-relief panels depicting World War II scenes and 56 separate pillars for each state, territory and the District of Columbia.

Our group went around to the Minnesota pillar. I quickly found the Oregon pillar, which became the focus for my visit to this memorial.

What is the most poignant part of this memorial is the Freedom Wall. On this wall are 4,000 gold stars to commemorate the 400,000 Americans who died during World War II.

There was quite a crowd at this memorial that Saturday forenoon. In fact, there were three other Honor Flights which had came to this special place. One large group was from Rochester, N.Y., the second group was from Montgomery, Ala., and the third group was from lower Michigan.

We ate our free box lunches, courtesy of Arby’s, and left the World War II Memorial on our buses at 1:05 p.m. to take a guided tour around our nation’s capital city and make two more stops.

By the time we left the World War II Memorial, one factor about our nation’s capital was becoming apparent. There were so many buses in the city, both moving and parked. Some were tour buses from various parts of the nation. Others were bringing school students on field trips to this very interesting and scenic city for weekend trips. One group of very nice junior high or middle school students I encountered was from Alabama. And what has to be a really different type bus were the local transit double decker buses with open tops. These were obviously great choices for seating on days with fairly good weather. On these buses was the notation of “Hop on. Hop off.”

The weather in Washington, D.C., the day we were there was overcast with temperatures in the high 50s and low 60s, and several very light drizzles.

We’ll conclude this series of columns based on the Southeastern Minnesota Honor Flight next week.

Ed’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.