Jerry Lujan
Are you a military veteran? Have you visited the military memorials in Washington, D.C.? Would you like to visit them? Would you like to visit them in the company of other veterans such as yourself? Would you like to visit them at no cost to yourself?
If you have answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you should know about a nation-wide program called Honor Flight Network. It is a program to say “Thank you for your service” and it is currently available to veterans of WWII (1941 – 1946) and the Korean War (1950 – 1955).
In a nutshell – the completely free three-day trip includes airfare, hotel accommodations, all meals and visits to the WWII Memorial and the Korean Memorial. And the veteran isn’t doing this alone, a Guardian is provided to ensure the safety and comfort of each veteran. Each veteran? Yes, each veteran because the veteran does not make the trip alone. There will be several veterans on each flight, some older, some younger, (just like when you were in the military) but in any case they will all want to share their time in the military. For some the trip will be an opportunity for closure, for others it will be an opportunity to be with “comrades in arms,” a chance to relive some of their past. The trip allows each veteran the opportunity to feel the impact of their service as well as our nation’s gratitude.
All of this sounds great but how did all of this come about?
The inaugural Honor Flight Tour took place in May of 2005. Six small planes flew out of Springfield, Ohio taking 12 World War II veterans on a visit to the memorial in Washington, DC. In August of 2005, an ever-expanding waiting list of veterans led transition to commercial airline carriers with the goal of accommodating as many veterans as possible. Partnering with HonorAir in Hendersonville, North Carolina the Honor Flight Network was formed.
How did all of this come about? The Honor Flight Network program was conceived by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and Retired Air Force Captain. Earl wanted to honor the veterans he had taken care of for the past 27 years. After retiring from the Air Force in 1998, Earl was hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to work in a small clinic in Springfield, Ohio. In May of 2004, the World War II Memorial was finally completed and dedicated in Washington, D.C. and quickly became the topic of discussion among his World War II veteran patients.
The inaugural Honor Flight Tour took place in May of 2005. Six small planes flew out of Springfield, Ohio taking 12 World War II veterans on a visit to the memorial in Washington, DC. In August of 2005, an ever-expanding waiting list of veterans led to transition to commercial airline carriers with the goal of accommodating as many veterans as possible. To know the rest of the story, go to: https://www.honorflight.org/about-honor-flight-network.
Okay, are you interested? Great! To find out how to sign up for this program go to www.honorflightsaz.org. That site will give you more information about the program and provides a way to sign up online. There is a lot of information on that site, so investigate but if you have questions that aren’t answered there, please call me at 818-6264 and I will see if I can help.