Honor Flight thanks military vets with trip to Washington D.C. to tour the nation's monuments and memorials
Honor Flight takes vets on 3-day trip to Washington DC
One of 10 Honor Flights to take off from Sky Harbor Airport on an annual basis left for Washington DC taking veterans from the Korean War, Vietnam War and even World War II to see monuments dedicated to their service. FOX 10's Brian Webb has more.
PHOENIX - A special flight landed in the nation's capital. An honor flight from Phoenix, taking military veterans on a three-day trip to tour the memorials and monuments in Washington D.C.
Most importantly, the flights were provided to honor their service.
Honor Flight heroes are greeted at Sky Harbor Airport
The backstory:
Honor Flight is a volunteer-only operation across the country.
The mission is to take these veterans to Washington D.C. to see the monuments and memorials, but mostly to make sure they know we remember and appreciate their sacrifice.
They move slowly through Sky Harbor Airport to claps, cheers and hand shakes.
Military veterans from Vietnam, Korea and even a 98-year-old from World War II.
Honor Flight heroes march toward their flight to Washington D.C.
What they're saying:
"It’s very, very overwhelming," said veteran Peter LaRosa. "I can’t believe that you all would do so much for so few of us."
It's one of 10 trips a year to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials and monuments.
The sites were only made possible by the sacrifice of these men and women.
"There’s so many years we were ignored or denied that we even existed, so I am very happy that we’re finally getting recognition," said veteran Jeanette Booker.
33 veterans return to Arizona after Honor Flight
Veterans from Arizona return home after taking a flight to see memorials that were built in their honor in Washington D.C. FOX 10's Lindsey Ragas has more.
"Oh boy, what a wonderful opportunity. I never expected it," said veteran David Keeler.
Not all veterans return to a glorious celebration. Some feel they were not truly appreciated at the time.
"A lot of people think that all the World War II veterans came back to their parades but they didn’t," said Matthew Hartman, Honor Flight logistics coordinator. The Korean War is ‘the Forgotten War’ so obviously those veterans probably didn’t get a good welcome home. And we’ve all heard the horror stories of the Vietnam veterans when they came home."
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Why you should care:
It takes dozens of volunteers to pull this off.
From traveling medics to keep them safe, to school kids who made sack lunches.
"I helped out for this cause so the US Army could have lunch," said volunteer Grayson Bond.
"I volunteer because of my dad and the life we had as a family and our way of life being preserved because of all of these wonderful people," said volunteer Deborah Van Dusen.
As they walked, limped and wheeled their way to the gate, passengers stopped in their tracks for a standing ovation.
The first honor flight was in 2005 and the first honor flight out of Arizona came a few years later in 2009.