LEWISTON – Veterans looked over photos and newspaper clippings and watched videos of the World War II Veterans Memorial dedication in Washington during a reunion Monday at the Ramada Inn.

It had been four months since about 100 veterans and family members climbed aboard two buses in Rumford, Lewiston and Canton on Memorial Day weekend. Many thought it was time they got together to exchange photos, stories and memories of the trip, the only organized trip from the state to the memorial to the millions of veterans who served during World War II.

“It’s just like a society,” said Albert “Red” Paul of Rumford, one of the organizers of the Washington trip. “We took the trip together and now we’re back together.”

Paul’s sentiments were expressed in many ways by many people as they gathered around tables filled with photos.

Margaret Weston of Mexico traveled to the Ramada Inn with several other area women who had made the 15-hour trip to the nation’s capital.

“When I was there, I could feel my husband’s presence,” she said. Her husband, World War II veteran Orton Weston, is deceased.

“We’ve been looking forward to it,” said Joe Monahan of Bethel, who was attending with his wife, Jo. “The best part was the camaraderie. We felt so close and so much a part of everything.”

Loretta Bard, a Rumford Veterans’ Clinic nurse, organized the dedication trip and the special reunion. As she had seen some of the veterans in the months since that trip, she said many had fond memories and wanted to get together again.

“The dedication had so much meaning to them. They wanted to keep the memories alive,” she said.

Many wore the group’s trademark hunter orange caps, a stroke of genius that helped the group find each other among the half-million people who attended the WWII memorial dedication.

“Everyone who saw pictures or television programs of the dedication remembers those hats,” said Dot Clukey. She and her husband, Phil, a World War II veteran, traveled from Hampden to take part in the reunion.

Bob Sessions, a World War II Army veteran, almost didn’t go.

“It was a last-minute decision, and I’m awfully glad I did it,” he said as he and fellow Norway resident and World War II veteran Lloyd Herrick looked over pictures and chatted with others.

Along with the photos, people also had a chance to sign a giant “get well” poster for another of their group who had traveled to D.C. Vinton Kennedy, of Dryden, had wanted to attend the reunion. At the dedication, he, like so many others, was greatly impressed with the attention and respect the veterans received from everyone there.

Because he had recently undergone major surgery, he was unable to attend. But Bard made sure that everyone remembered him with a panoramic picture of the group and best wishes on a bright red poster board.

“This reunion was a great idea,” said Phil Theriault as he sported his bright orange cap. He said he hoped there will be another reunion in the near future.

Bard said other get-togethers will be organized if the interest in there.

“It was such a wonderful thing. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” said Gloria Hall of Buckfield, a Desert Storm veteran who traveled to Washington with World War II veteran Myrtle Gordon of Livermore, and Korean War veteran Barbara Finkbeiner of Turner.

“The memories of such a wonderful time to Washington, we wanted more of them,” said Joe Puiia of Rumford.