Advanced Health Care’s long-time scheduler of twenty years, Daun Lenz, received the trip of a lifetime at the end of September 2023 when she traveled to D.C. with a group of other veterans aboard the “Puget Sound Honor Flight”. Honor Flight is a non-profit agency whose mission is to bring Western Washington veterans to Washington D.C., to visit and reflect at memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices. Daun, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, was able to travel with fellow veterans and do just that a few weeks ago. These photos show her with two of the many historical memorials she visited during her trip.
When asked about her military service, Daun said, “I began my service in the United States Marine Corps on March 15, 1967, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina. I was one of 98 women in my Platoon. The night prior to graduation, I was ordered to the office and asked by the Commanding Officer of Recruit Company to stay and work for her as an executive assistant. I graduated in the top 10% of my class and received my first promotion, Private First Class, on graduation day from boot camp. I was promoted meritoriously to Lance Corporal and meritoriously to Corporal in 14 months which was unheard for a woman at that time.”
Reflecting on her trip, Daun expressed, “Our dynamic Puget Sound Honor Flight team was extraordinarily compassionate, and extremely attentive to the needs of each veteran. As a veteran of the Vietnam War this experience provided me with profound healing and recognition, which was not expressed by our country at the end of this war. The Honor Flight adventure will forever be etched in my memory and upon my heart.”
Written by: Lynessa Stone, Advanced Health Care