Aloy “Al” Ruland Sr.’s wish was to visit the WWII Memorial and the Korean Veterans Memorial the past few years where he served both wars in the Signal Corp. At the age of 87 his wish came true.

Salute The Veterans, Inc. a 501(c)3 Non-Profit, heard about Al’s wish, and during one of their fundraisers invited him as their guest of honor and announced in front of all of the participants who help them raise monies, that Al will be chauffeured to the Memorials on August 24th.

Rebecca Pulley, President of Salute The Veterans, Inc. made a phone call to a fellow Veteran that she served with, and who owns Lighthouse Limosine Service in Edgewater, MD. They were able to make arrangements to have a limo drive him that day. Rebecca made another call to the Old Ebbit Grill (the oldest Restaurant in D.C. built in 1856) and spoke with the General Manager Christian and asked if they would treat Al to lunch as a guest of honor that day. The immediate response was “yes.”

The Limo arrived at Al’s daughter’s home at 9:30AM and once everyone was comfortable they were off to make his wish come true. The first stop was the WWII Memorial, where a Ranger kindly offered a private tour. Visitors came up to shake his hand and to thank him for his service to our Country. With tears in his eyes he thanked them in return. Tom, the Limo driver and also a Vietnam Veteran was ready to take us to lunch after our visit to the WWII Memorial.

We arrived at the Old Ebbit Grill around noon and Tony the Mattre d’ saw Al come thru the door with his wife Alice, and daughter Linda Blottenberger, when he saw my husband Dan and I he remembered my name right away and had Dan the Assistant General Manager seat us immediately.

The atmosphere was cassual elegance, with paintings of the celebrating of the ending of WWII on the walls. The choice of Restaurants couldn’t of been more fitting for the day! The service and the food were very good. Tony and Dan came to introduce themselves and to thank Al for his service, more tears of honor and pride in his eyes as he thanked them!

Rebecca noticed a Purple Heart lapel pin on Tony’s jacket for she received one during the Gulf war, and he told her he served in the Marines during Vietnam. They shared stories during lunch and Tony told Al “this Marine wishes to treat an “Army Soldier” and his guests to lunch”…everyone laughed and thanked him.

As Al was leaving, Tony approached him and they both gave out a loud “Hooooah” and a hug with laughter! Tom was waiting out front to drive us to the Korean War Veterans Memorial.

We arrrived and unloaded the wheel chairs and Linda took Al and Dan took Alice to the front where the point man is in the front of the “V” formation. Rebecca was standing in front of the flag pole taking the photo of Al saluting the flag, and all of the visitors began to applaude him…hardly a dry eye during that moment. Linda pushed Al around while Dan pushed Alice to see the reflection of the statues in the wall of etched faces of fellow soldiers. Al reached out to touch them as to “thank them” for their all!

Good hearts put together were able to bring Al’s wish come true and God’s final touch to a beautiful weathered day to make it a wonderful day for Al to remember! His last words when driving home were ” I just can’t believe this..I’m trying to soak it all in!” We “SALUTE” you Al, you deserved it and more!