The fifth and final mission of 2017 for the Great River Honor Flight program will be a unique group.  It will include veterans from Korea and Vietnam, with all but two of them being from Pike County Illinois.  The group consists of 66 local veterans – 7 who served during the Korean conflict and the remaining 59 served in Vietnam.  They will head to Washington DC along with 46 guardians, many of who are relatives of the veterans.  

This is the 45th mission overall since the program started back in 2010 and will continue to increase the total number of local veterans who have flown to Washington DC for free close to the 1,500 mark to 1,484.  This special group came to be due to a request by a couple of individuals from Pike County.  They wanted to see if there could be an Honor Flight with just veterans from their county and began raising money for it more than a year ago.  The trip will depart from the Hannibal LaGrange University campus around 2AM on Saturday, October 14th.  The Saturday departure, which has become more frequent in 2017, is due to changes in available flights to DC and the need to have at least 8 hours of ground time there for the veterans to see and enjoy the many memorials they will visit.  The 112 Veterans and their Guardians, which is twice the normal size of previous Great River Honor Flights, will travel by charter bus to St. Louis Lambert International Airport where they will board a flight to Baltimore and then on to our nation’s capital.  

The first stop will be at the Vietnam Memorial.  This stop will also include visits to the nearby Korea Way and Lincoln Memorials.  Next on their itinerary is a stop at the World War II Memorial, which sits next to the Washington Monument and where a group picture will be taken.  Then it’s off to the Air Force Memorial where they will enjoy dinner while viewing the DC skyline from this hilltop location.  Final stop will be an emotional visit to Arlington National Cemetery where they will see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well as take part in a wreath laying ceremony.  Three veterans will be selected to represent the entire group and have this high honor of laying a wreath at this famous monument.  Then, they will return to Reagan National for their trip home.  The direct flight will take them back to St. Louis where they will board a bus for the trip to Hannibal.  The expected arrival time will be around 10:30PM at Hannibal LaGrange University.

To date Great River Honor Flight, the Tri-States’ hub of the Honor Flight program has flown 1,418 local Veterans to Washington D.C. since it was established in October of 2009.