The U.S President Donald Trump has agreed to take a 101-year-old military veteran for a trip on Air Force One. Paul Wigfield is a World War II veteran and informed the president regarding his experience on Utah Beach in June of 1944. Wigfield said, “I was there half a month before I got wounded. Night and day on the battlefield”. He described the historic event known as D-Day in which the Allied Forces invaded northern France and sparked the months-long Battle of Normandy. Wigfield will join the White House officials in June as they celebrate the 75-year anniversary of D-Day. He asked Trump if he could fly on the president’s plane back to Washington after the event.
Trump replied, “We’ll work that out. “You’ll like Air Force One”. Wigfield joined a group of veterans on Thursday and met Trump at the White House for a public meeting. Trump joked with three of the four veterans who were all above the age of 100-years old. He said, “You don’t look a day over 90”. He also listened as the veterans shared wartime stories, injecting comments such as “that was a great victory” and “we knew how to win wars”. Trump said to the veterans shaking their hands from behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office, “This is a special moment”.
The White House visit arrived 2-days after he issued a proclamation declaring 9 April the National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. He honored war heroes on Twitter and in public statements that hailed such Americans as “true patriots”. The declaration also sparked a backlash from critics who pointed out his past comments attacking the late Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Trump said in a 1999 interview, “He was captured. Does being captured make you a hero? I don’t know. I’m not sure”.