This past Tuesday, a World War II Navy vet – Donald Buska, of Billings, MT \u2013 passed away.\u00a0 He was 86.<\/p>\n
Buska died suddenly, but his end was not completely unexpected.\u00a0 Besides his age, he\u2019d been in hospice care since mid February.<\/p>\n
This normally would not be noteworthy.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re rapidly losing the few remaining vets of World War II due to age.<\/p>\n
However, Buska\u2019s passing was indeed noteworthy.\u00a0 And it was noteworthy for more than simply the fact that he was a veteran of World War II.<\/p>\n
Buska knew he was not long for this earth.\u00a0 But he had one remaining dream:\u00a0 he wanted to visit Washington and see the World War II Monument before he passed.<\/p>\n
On Sunday and Monday, he did so.\u00a0 He did so as a guest of Big Sky Honor Flight of Montana.\u00a0 His son Jeff accompanied him.<\/p>\n
Buska and his son visited DC for two days.\u00a0 Mail call was held on arrival \u2013 where he and other participants received many letters of support from friends and acquaintances, coordinated by the Honor Flight program.\u00a0 He indeed saw the Monument \u2013 as well as the Changing of the Guard at Arlington.\u00a0 He reconnected with an old poker buddy.\u00a0 On return, he and the other vets received the proverbial hero\u2019s welcome.<\/p>\n
He stayed up until around midnight Monday night, reading the mail call letters with his family.\u00a0 He\u2019d had a thoroughly wonderful trip.<\/p>\n
And at 4:15AM on Tuesday morning, he died.<\/p>\n