TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Honor Flight Tallahassee took 72 veterans to Washington D.C. this year, and the only woman sporting the gold shirt was Juanita Raymond.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not realize I was going to be the only female veteran here,\u201d Raymond said.<\/p>\n
Raymond joined the Army in 1974, not out of a lifelong dream, but out of love. When her husband Leland was drafted and heading overseas, she had a simple answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like, I\u2019m going too,\u201d Raymond said.<\/p>\n
She enlisted just in time to serve in one of the last battalions of the Women\u2019s Army Corps before it was folded into the regular Army. The two were married at 18 and 20, and served side by side in South Korea during the Vietnam War. Juanita served in the Army for six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got married there, she joined the Army there, then I got my orders to go to Korea \u2014 and she got to go to Korea at the same time,\u201d Leland Raymond said.<\/p>\n
Fifty-three years of marriage later, they made the trip to Washington D.C. together, this time with their son Daniel by their side.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honor of a lifetime to be able to contribute like this,\u201d Daniel Raymond said. \u201cI love my parents very much and it\u2019s really a real treat to be able to spend the day with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Juanita Raymond, getting a chance to stop and see several memorials with her husband and son meant everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart just\u2026 it overflows,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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