World War II veteran Jack Leach is Surry County’s oldest living survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and next month, he will visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the first time.

Leach spoke to the Mount Airy Rotary Club Tuesday during its weekly meeting at Cross Creek Country Club. He will be one of 12 local veterans who will be going on the Triad Flight of Honor leaving Greensboro on Oct. 3.

“I’m excited about it. I’ve seen pictures of it and it’s beautiful. I just want to see it, we waited for it a long time,” Leach said of the monument that was completed in 2004.

Norman Webb, the oldest living Surry County survivor of the D-day Invasion at Normandy on June 6, 1944, will be going on the trip as well. He has earned two Purple Hearts and four Bronze Stars, which he wore to the meeting yesterday.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Webb said of the trip.

Veteran Grover Haymore also said he is looking forward to the trip to see the memorial. Haymore served in the Army in WWII in Italy. He said he went back to visit 15 years ago, and so much had changed since he had been there during the war.

“It was so different. Nothing was the same. They built everything back,” Haymore said.

Mount Airy Rotary President Bob Meinecke is going on the trip as a guardian.

Mitzi Ellis, Rotarian co-chair of District 7690, is in charge of organizing the Triad Flight of Honor. So far two flights are planned, however, since at least 400 local veterans have signed up to go, more flights are in the planning stages for the spring. She said more than 250 people signed up to be guardians on the flights.

Rotary board member and Press Secretary Ann Vaughn said since so many veterans have signed up, more money will have to be raised to pay for the veterans and guardians to visit the memorial. It costs $500 for each veteran for the trip.

“This is something we have to act on now, they are not getting any younger,” Vaughn said.

Of the 16 million soldiers who served in World War II, they are dying at the rate of 1,200 to 1,500 per day, according to Jeff Miller, a resident of Hendersonville, S.C., who founded the Flight of Honor program.

Meinecke said the Mount Airy district has sponsored one veteran and one guardian. He said one member paid for a guardian to go on the trip.

Ellis said family members of veterans are not allowed to sign up as guardians. She said each guardian is in charge of three veterans and if the guardian is a family member, “they tend to pay more attention to their loved one.”

One hundred veterans will fly to Washington, D.C., from the Piedmont Triad Airport on Oct. 3 to visit the WWII Memorial and the Vietnam, Korean and FDR memorials. The chartered U.S. Airways flight of 143 passengers will include a flight leader, a flight doctor, two emergency medical technicians and volunteer guardians to assist the veterans throughout the day.

The World War II Memorial honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S., the more than 400,000 who died, and all who supported the war effort from home. The Second World War is the only 20th Century event commemorated on the National Mall’s central axis.

Jeff Sims, logistics coordinator and Rotary liaison, will be acting as flight director on the Oct. 28 flight. He said local Veterans of Foreign Wars Honor Guard 2019 and American Legion 123 both gave $1,000 donations to the cause.

The memorial is on 17th Street, between Constitution and Independence avenues, and is flanked by the Washington Monument to the east and the Lincoln Memorial to the west. The memorial is operated by the National Park Service and is open to visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mount Airy granite played a large role in the construction of the memorial. William Swift, president and CEO of North Carolina Granite Corp., said 104 truckloads of granite were taken to build the memorial. He said the steps, pavers and coping around the fountain, or basically all of the horizontal granite parts, either came from Mount Airy or Greene County, Ga.

Tax deductible donations to help pay for veterans’ trips can be made at any Triad BB&T branch office or checks made payable to Triad Flight of Honor can be mailed to Triad Flight of Honor, P.O. Box 4613, Greensboro, NC 27404. Online donations can be made at www.rotary7690.org and Mitzi Ellis can be reached at (336) 285-8847.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.