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During the recent Covington Region Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., the veterans and guardians shared the day with a Florala family who experienced their own special event.

A total of 37 veterans and volunteers made the day-long trip.

Patty Hughes from Florala, who serves on the local Honor Flight committee, got to invite her son, USAF Lt. Colonel Tyler Hughes, and his wife Ann and their three-year-old son Landon to join the group in DC for the tour. Her son and his family live in the Washington, D.C. area.

While the Honor Flight group was experiencing the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, the Hughes family visited the Military Women’s Memorial, located at the entrance to Arlington, where a special event took place.

USAF Lt. Colonel Tyler Hughes, a 2003 graduate of Florala High School, had the privilege of pinning the rank insignia on his wife, newly-promoted U.S. Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Ann Hughes.  Their three-year-old son, Landon, waved a small American flag, as the proud Mom–Patty–watched the ceremony.

Lt. Colonels Hughes and Hughes, along with son Landon, shared almost the entire day with the local Honor Flight group.

Saturday, April 29, was a very long, but most memorable day for everyone on the Honor Flight, especially the veterans who received a hero’s welcome as they arrived at the Reagan National Airport.  The group traveled by bus from Andalusia, leaving at 2 a.m. to fly from Pensacola to Washington, D.C. They returned home about 11:30 p.m.