World War II vet takes Honor Flight

July 20, 2011

Honor Flight-bound Jack Woods received a motorcycle escort as he headed out of Deer Park on Friday.

Deer Park’s Jack Woods was among 35 area World War II veterans who were part of the Inland Northwest Honor Flight that left Spokane International Airport on Friday to see the memorial built in their honor in Washington, D.C.
The 85-year-old Woods, who enlisted in the Navy in 1943, served in the South Pacific during World War II aboard the USS Cassin Young (DD-793), which withstood several kamikaze attacks.
Woods, who later worked at Kaiser-Mead, has lived in Deer Park since 1968.
He received a motorcycle escort as he left Deer Park for Spokane on Friday morning. The group returned to Spokane on Sunday afternoon.
Inland Northwest Honor Flight made a special presentation at the airport to the family of Marine Corps Pvt. Herman Sturmer Jr., who died in November 1943 fighting in the South Pacific. His remains, discovered by a construction crew in 2002, were recently returned to Spokane.
This is the 10th Honor Flight in the last couple of years. So far 306 veterans have made the trip to Washington, D.C., since November 2009.