mr. dan hayes.applause] >> thank you so much to the friends of the world war ii memorial and the national park service for having me here today. what an honor to be here with all of you to remember such an important day in our history. about three years ago, i wandered down to this memorial with my video camera by the atlantic color and asked world war ii veteran a simple question. how is your day going? he looked at me with sincerity and said, i could die happy man now that i have made this trip. that answer was the beginning of an incredible journey for me. it served as an inspiration to make a documentary about communities across the country that have pulled together to send these veterans, now in their 80's and 90's, on a trip to d.c. to see their memorial. these trips are called on flights. on a flight is a non-profit organization that flies world war ii here to see this memorial at no cost. they fly from 117 cities from across the country and have flown over 100,000 veterans to date. for the p

mr. dan hayes.applause] >> thank you so much to the friends of the world war ii memorial and the national parks service for having me here today. what an honor to be here with all of you to remember such an important day in our history. it was about three years ago that i wandered down to this memorial with my video camera, right over there by the atlantic heller. i asked a world war ii veterans a pretty simple question -- i said, how is your day going? he looked at me with the utmost sincerity in his eyes and said, i could die a happy man now that i have made this trip. that answer was the beginning of an incredible journey for me. it served as an inspiration to make a documentary about communities across the country that have pulled together to send these veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, to see the memorial. these trips are called on our flights, and as many of you know, honor flight is a nonprofit organization that was started by earl morris. it flies world war ii veterans out here to see this

mr. dan hayes.friends of the national wwii memorial and the national park service for having me here today. what an honor to be here with all of you to remember such an important day in our history. it was about three years ago i wandered down to this memorial with my video camera right over there by the atlantic builder. and as a world war ii veteran -- asked a world war ii veteran a pretty simple question. i said how is your day going? he looked at me with the utmost sincerity, with his eyes, and he said i could die a happy man now that i've made this trip. that answer was the beginning of an incredible journey for me. it served as an inspiration to make a documentary about communities across the country that have pulled together, since these veterans now in their 80s and '90s, on a trip to d.c. to see their own memorial. these trips were called on their flights. as many of you know, on the flight is a nonprofit organization started by earl warren here with us today, and jeff miller. it flies worl