Madera veterans fly to Washington, D.C., with honor

Even battered, bruised and blue, Korean War veteran Dick Haupt was going to go on his final mission to Washington with honor.

Just four days before the 82-year-old Madera resident was scheduled to go on Central Valley Honor Flight #9, he was in a car accident that left him with stitches running from his wrist to the middle of his forearm and bruises along his arm and all the way up to his chin.

The vehicle he was in went off the road and landed in an almond orchard. “Took out five trees,” Haupt said.

Nevertheless, Haupt was one of 67 veterans from 26 hometowns in central California selected for the three-day trip to the nation’s capital last week. The Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and Army Air Corps/Air Force were all represented...