They are dying at a rate of a thousand a day across the country. So the opportunities to honor living World War II veterans are growing short.

In October, two special flights took vets from the Sedalia area to Washington, D.C. to see the war memorials there. On the second trip, the KRCG "Citizen Cam" went along.

They were up well before sunrise to assemble in the Sedalia Wal-Mart parking lot.

Almost three dozen World War II veterans were off on an adventure that would take them to the nation's capital and bring them back the same day.

We gave the KRCG "Citizen Camera" to local radio personalty Charlie Thomas to document the trip. It begins with a pre-dawn bus ride to Kansas City International Airport, with breakfast provided by local merchants.

Then comes a flight to Baltimore, where a second bus ride takes the group directly to the recently-completed World War II Memorial on the mall between the Washington and Lincoln Memorials.

The group includes Mutt Embry, who was in the 4th infantry. Inspecting the monuments brought back memories of his three years of service, with no furloughs nor day passes.

He doesn't remember what they paid him. It did not really matter.

"I had a government bond sent home every week to my mother," recalls Embry, "'Cause you didn't have any use for money."

Later, it was on to the Korean and Vietnam War memorials, the Lincoln Memorial and the humbling Iwo Jima Memorial. Finally, a stop at Arlington National Cemetery to watch the always emotional changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

And just that fast, it's home to Sedalia.

So, what was the most touching moment in the trip?

It was the arrival in Baltimore, where people at the airport had been alerted to the fact that a group of old veterans was coming off the plane. They stood and applauded, just as they have for veterans returning from the Persian Gulf.

They might be disappearing quickly, but these vets will not soon be forgotten.

It costs $20,000 to send a group of vets to Washington for a trip like this. If you would like to support the honor flight program, you can send contributions to P.O. Box 1935 in Sedalia.

If you would like to arrange a trip for veterans from your area, you can call (660) 287-3271.

To learn more about the program, click on the link below.

About the KRCG Citizen Cam

KRCG introduced the Citizen Cam in 2008 to give our viewers a chance to take our audience places they otherwise could not. The Citizen Cam has gone to Hurricane ravaged Texas, and on board a U.S. Navy submarine tour, among other places. Locally, it caught glimpses of Barack Obama during his campaign stop to Columbia.

If you think you could use the Citizen Cam to tell a story from a faraway place, or maybe somewhere closer to home, email us.