(AP) -- South Carolina businessman Bill Dukes has put nearly 1,000 elderly military veterans on planes to Washington in the past two years to see the memorial dedicated to their military service.
On Wednesday, Dukes' organization is sponsoring its 10th trip, marking more than 1,000 vets making the journey.
Dukes says a 2008 visit to the National World War II Memorial with his father, a veteran of the war, was a time of remembrance and reflection for both.
His father served in the Pacific and earned a Purple Heart.
Dukes says he returned from that visit committed to getting any other veteran who wants to see the monument to Washington, saying the nation owes it to them.
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