MISSOURI — Honor Flight Veterans receive a welcome home celebration at Mark Twain High School on June 15th.

The Great River Honor Flight Board of Directors announced that the 66^th Mission will take place on Thursday, August 17^th out of John Wood Community College.

A total of 31 veterans will take part on this trip.  Of them,  27 served during the Vietnam era and the remaining 4 served before or after Vietnam..

This will be the 66^th mission overall for local veterans since the program started serving the Tri State region in 2010.  Since then, 2,098 local veterans who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and between those conflicts have previously participated in this program.  The 31 veterans come from Illinois (Adams, Brown, Hancock, and McDonough), Missouri (Marion, Clark, Knox and Lewis), plus Iowa (Lee) will be part of this mission.

The departure and return on August 17^th will be from John Wood Community College in Quincy.  The trip will follow the itinerary that has been so successful over the past 13 years.  It includes a 2:00AM departure for a bus ride to Lambert Field in St. Louis where they will board their flight to Baltimore and then on to DC.  The first stop will be at the Vietnam Wall Memorial.  This stop will also include visits to the nearby Korea 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.  Next will be a stop at the Air Force Memorial overlooking the Pentagon and then an emotional visit to Arlington National Cemetery including seeing the ceremonial changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The DC trip will conclude with a stop at the Iwo Jima Memorial and then dinner at the Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue.  The veterans will then head to Reagan International Airport for their return flight back to St. Louis.  A charter bus will bring them back to John Wood’s Sports Arena for a rousing homecoming. The expected arrival time back in Quincy will be around 10:30PM.

Great River Honor Flight was started on Veterans Day 2009 with its first flight scheduled on April 13, 2010.  Back then all the veterans were from World War II.  That is the way it continued for several years until it was decided to expand to those veterans who had served during the Korean War.  Since then we have also expanded to include veterans during the Vietnam War as well as those who served between WWII, Korea and Vietnam and veterans serving thru 1985.  Our goal remains to increase the total number of local veterans who have flown to Washington DC for FREE.

To date Great River Honor Flight, the Tri-States’ hub of the Honor Flight program has flown 2,098 local Veterans to Washington D.C. since it was established in 2009. This trip will increase that total to 2,129.

Great River Honor Flight, a Missouri Nonprofit Corporation established in October of 2009, was created solely to honor America’s veterans that live in our area for all they have sacrificed by providing, free of charge, transportation to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices.

For additional information, contact Carlos Fernandez at csfernandez1951@gmail.com or

Great River Honor Flight

PO Box 3723

Quincy, Illinois  62305

 

Conflict	Last	First	Nick	Hometown	State	Branch
Viet	Abbot	Warren E.	Warren	Colchester	IL	AF
Viet	Benner	Kenneth E.	Kenny	Quincy	IL	A
AFV	Benner	Roy D.	Dean	Plainville	IL	N
Viet	Boylen	Michael D.	Mike	Mt. Sterling	IL	A
Viet	Brown	Roy D.	Roy	Kahoka	MO	A
VIet	Brownlee	Francis K.	Francis	Hamilton	IL	M
AFV	Crager	William G.	Bill	Monroe City	MO	A
Viet	Crow	Kent L.	Kent	Mendon	IL	AF
Viet	Dalrymple	Wilbur E.	Will	Ft, Madison	IA	M
AFV	Decker	Lester H.	Lester	West Point	IA	N
Viet	DeLaney	Donald Lee	Don	Hurdland	MO	A
Viet	Eston	Steven C.	Steve	LaGrange	MO	A
Viet	Gooding	Jimmy R.	Jim	Loraine	IL	A
Viet	Gooding	Rodney L.	Rodney	Mendon	IL	AF
Viet	Graham	Billy L.	Bill	Quincy	IL	A
Viet	Harrison	Charles D.	Denny	Hannibal	MO	CG
Viet	Kilbride	Laverne J.	J.	LaBelle	MO	A
Viet	Lepper	Charles R.	Lepper	Fowler	IL	A
AFV	Leyendeckers	Patrick L.	Pat	Quincy	IL	N
Viet	Lung	Tmothy Lee	Timothy	Camp Point	IL	N
Viet	McAllister	Kevin N.	Kevin	Warsaw	IL	A
Viet	Mast	Stephen R.	Steve	Fowler	IL	M
Viet	Meyer	Walter S.	Sherman	Camp Point	IL	AF
Viet	O’Leary	Eugene T.	Gene	Camp Point	IL	A
Viet	Rudd	Randolph	Randy	Quincy	IL	M
Viet	Schwindeler	Martin K.	Marty	Quincy	IL	A
Viet	Shirey	Charles E.	Chuck	Hamilton	IL	AF
Viet	Smith	Timothy R.	Tim	Maywood	MO	A
Viet	Tournear	Raymond, D.	Ray	Bowen	IL	A
Viet	Webster	Edward W.	Ed	Loraine	IL	AF
Viet	Wright	Bailey R.	Roy	Quincy	IL	AF

AFV stands for Armed Forces Veterans and includes those who serve between WWII – Korea-Vietnam.