JEFFGOTTESFELD

One of the best parts of having written Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (brilliantly illustrated by Matt Tavares!) is that it brought me – who never served in the United States Armed Forces, and whose attitude about our military in my younger days was disdainful at best – into contact with so many people and families who have been ready to sacrifice everything in  the defense of all of us. 
 

Those conversations taught me about the remarkable volunteer Honor Flight program, now organized by the Honor Flight Network, that flies aging veterans to Washington DC on an all-expenses-paid visit to see their monuments and then get the homecoming so many of them did not receive. So far, 300,000 vets (each with a Guardian) have made the journey. I was a Guardian on an Honor Flight in 2023; Matt Tavares, who also illustrates this book, did one last summer. 
 

In Honor Flight,  a nameless vet narrate his own Honor Flight experience – the emotions above all. Matt’s illustrations, with his own Vietnam veteran Uncle Gil as his model, brings readers close to the D.C. monuments and the vets whose service must never be forgotten. 

To write Honor Flight: Celebrating America’s Veterans, and join forces again with Matt as an illustrator? It was an honor.