Tyler welcomes veterans home from Heroes Flight

TYLER – Two dozen veterans are back in East Texas on Wednesday night after returning from an all-expense-paid trip to our nation’s capital, according to our news partners at kETK. 24 East Texas veterans landed from their ‘Heroes Flight’ at the Tyler Pounds Regional Airport on Wednesday night. The flight is an all-expense-paid trip by Brookshire’s Grocery Company to Washington, D.C. This is the 20th Heroes Flight and the first since the pandemic, with more than 700 applications submitted. The East Texas community gave loud cheers at the welcome home celebration for the brave veterans who fought for our freedom.

91-year-old Air Force veteran, Sherman Harper began his military career in 1953. He traveled all over the world with his young family.

“The welcome home was off the chain, just lovely, everyone showed up,” Harper said.

Harper was one of 24 veterans who traveled to Washington, D.C. and toured historic monuments.

“We are celebrating him, because we got all around the world, we never got to welcome him home, so this was really exciting to say welcome home daddy. It was really good,” said Patricia Harper, Sherman’s daughter.

On Monday, they toured the Congressional Library and received a tour of the Capitol building by Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-TX). On Tuesday, the group toured the Arlington National Cemetery, World War Two and Vietnam memorials as well as other memorials of the military branches.

“The interior of it, it just had everything that you really wanna see in the Air Force from day one to the current time,” Sherman said .

Each veteran took their time at each stop to reflect on their time in the military.

“The amount of tears and joy and celebrations and stories and relationships made in three days is truly incredible,” said Morgan Jones, Brookshire’s Grocery Company manager of communications and community involvement.

In December, Brookshire’s will host a family reunion dinner where the veterans from the trip will meet up with their families and talk about their memories on the trip.