On Dec. 7, 1941, the United States was pulled into World War II when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

For nearly four years after that, American men went off to foreign lands to fight, pushing back forces intent upon forcibly controlling much of the world. While there were no serious immediate threats to the American homeland, vital American interests were in danger of being lost. And, there was the very real possibility that at some point American soil could once again come under attack.

Of course, that conflict, and the generation of American men and women who sacrificed so much to literally save the world, has been well-chronicled over the intervening decades.

One thing that many people do not know, however, is that the troops who went overseas, the ones fortunate enough to survive and return to their homelands, were not universally greeted with parades and welcoming parties.

Yes, there were ticker-tape parades in New York and other major cities, but many of the men who fought, and the women who served in other capacities, quietly returned to their towns and cities, got jobs and become regular civilians again, with little talk of their war time service.

These people who had done so much, without any thought for their own comfort or well-being, simply faded back into society. Yes, their actions have been lauded, their sacrifices and effect on the world an ongoing presence, but there had never been an official memorial to their actions, and to those who were lost during that conflict, until recently.

The World War II National Memorial, after years of planning and fundraising, was opened in 2004 to commemorate what this generation did for America and the rest of the world.

By this time many of those who had served were elderly, and some had no means to make a journey to Washington, D.C., to visit the site.

Until now.

As detailed on page 1 of today’s Mount Airy News, local Rotary Clubs are making possible Flights of Honor, pairing up volunteers with veterans, flying them to see the Memorial.

This probably doesn’t have any great outcome in terms of modern world events, but it is a good and right thing to do, and it is wonderful to see Rotary doing this project.