Category: Latest News
Wand News
Caryn Eisert
Veterans at a local nursing home received a powerful tribute Tuesday as community groups partnered to bring a Flightless Honor Flight experience directly to them.
The program offered the sights, sounds and significance of Washington, D.C.’s war memorials without ever leaving Illinois.
The event, held at Maple Point Assisted Living and organized by Faith in Action volunteers, replicated the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight, a program that flies veterans to the nation’s capital to visit memorials built in their honor. The Flightless Honor Flight is designed for veterans who are unable to travel due to age, health, or other limitations.
“This flight is for those veterans that are unable, for whatever reason, to board a plane to actually go to Washington, D.C.,” said volunteer Rebecca Harper. “Many of them are from nursing homes or extended care facilities, and some are younger veterans who struggle with flying.”
Land of Lincoln Honor Flight typically serves veterans from World War II through the post–Vietnam era, providing a one-day trip to visit the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam memorials; the Lincoln Memorial; the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial; and Arlington National Cemetery.
For those unable to make the journey, the event brought the memorials to them.
Harper said the virtual tour mirrors the real thing.
“The video was set up just like if they were actually doing the tour,” Harper explained. “It goes through all the stops they would actually do if they were on a live tour. The bus driver narrates, and it’s just like they were there — only they’re watching it here with us.”
Avgeekery
By Dave Hartland
On Veterans Day 2025, a heartfelt visit from a former president made an unforgettable journey even more meaningful.
It was already a day to remember.
On 8 November 2025, seventy-nine veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War arrived at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) from Madison, Wisconsin (MSN), as part of the Badger Honor Flight Network. This chapter of the Honor Flight Network, among many nationwide, brings aging veterans to Washington to visit memorials built in their honor.
As the door of the chartered American Airlines Airbus A321 opened, passengers were greeted unexpectedly by former President Barack Obama, who stood waiting on the jet bridge to welcome them.
Veterans head to D.C. for 64th Honor Flight of the Quad Cities
KWQC
By Madeline Gillespie
Over 80 veterans and their volunteer guardians boarded a flight to Washington D.C. Tuesday morning for the 64th Honor Flight of the Quad Cities.
While in D.C., the veterans will tour the monuments built in their honor, and attend the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before returning to the Quad Cities Tuesday night.
For many, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.
“It’s just an honor to be recognized in what we did in the service to support our men and women that were overseas,” said Vietnam veteran, Barbara Withey.
The veterans are expected to land back at the Quad Cities International Airport around 10 p.m., and the public is invited to come to the airport to give the veterans a warm reception and welcome home.
Any veteran who served a year of honorable, non-training, active duty before 1976 is encouraged to fill out an application at honorflightqc.org/.
Central Oregon Daily News Staff
Local veterans were warmly welcomed back to Redmond Saturday following an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., where they visited memorials honoring their service and sacrifice.
Community members gathered at the airport to greet the veterans as they arrived, then joined a procession to Ridgeview High School for a Welcome Home Celebration. At the event, veterans also received honor quilts recognizing their service.
“This was bigger than I can explain. We landed, came through the airport, and people were clapping and screaming. I wasn’t ready for this,” said Chuck Towner, a Vietnam veteran.
Many of the veterans had never received a proper welcome after their service, making the event especially meaningful. Organized by Honor Flight of Central Oregon, the ceremony aimed to recognize and thank these local heroes for their sacrifices, with strong community support helping to make the day memorable.
By WKYT
Alexa Minton
Kentucky Veterans from across the state got the chance to go to the nation’s capital this weekend thanks to Honor Flight Kentucky.
65 Kentucky Service Men and Women, traveled to Washington DC Saturday Morning, to spend time at the veteran memorials – made in their honor.
Since 2010, Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives have sponsored an Honor Flight. Sha Phillips, with Touchstone, shared that, ” We really strive to have that commitment to community, and working with Honor Flight Kentucky is a great way to do that. It’s just a wonderful day to see the expressions and the gratitude that people give the veterans throughout the day”.
The day was emotional for some, as many veterans brought family members along the flight as their guardians. For many veterans, the visit was about much more than seeing the monuments – it was about reconnecting with their military history – and reminding themselves of the camaraderie and family they continue to find in their fellow service men and women.
By WXXI News
Jeremy Moule
Honor Flight Rochester will be given the ceremonial honor of leading the fourth annual Monroe County Veterans Day Parade.
The organization provides veterans with free flights to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials built in their honor.
In years past, the grand marshal has been a person, such as Sheriff Todd Baxter or Alan Levin, who you probably know better as Brother Wease.
But this is the second time a group has been chosen. Last year, The Vietnam Veteran was selected as the parade’s grand marshal to honor the 50th anniversary of that war’s end.
The parade is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. It will start at South Goodman Street and Highland Avenue and will continue up Highland to the Greater Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Gary Beikirch Memorial Park.
Beikirch was a Vietnam vet who served as a combat medic and received the Medal of Honor. He died in 2021.
By WSAW-TV
Caitrin Assaf
For 20 years, veterans across the U.S. have been offered an all-expense paid trip to Washington to tour the nation’s war memorials.
They’re called Honor Flights: a way to thank those who served and remember those who never made it home.
The latest Honor Flight to touch down in D.C. came from the Great River branch, with the entire group of 30 veterans calling Adams County, Ill. home. While the men varied in age and branches served, all were veterans of the Vietnam and Gulf War eras; something that made the visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial all the more special.
Gary Allen was one of those first-time visitors, a Vietnam War veteran himself.
“I lost several relatives in the Vietnam War and friends,” Allen said, ”so I’ve been so looking forward to getting to this.”
Specifically, Allen was looking for a name: Johnnie W. Ator, a close friend who was also engaged to Allen’s first cousin. He died during the war, and the loss is something Allen will never forget.
“You know, we look at [the wall] and I keep saying, ‘Why?,’” said Allen, getting emotional. ”I can’t express it. I wish I could.”
Selfless Among Us: How Tom Petrie Honors Heroes, One Flight at a Time
2 WGRZ
Melissa Holmes
BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Father’s Day weekend in 2013, Tom Petrie thought he was simply going to the airport to support a good cause. His daughter Heather had invited him to greet a group of veterans returning from an Honor Flight—part of a national network of flights that brings aging veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials built in their honor.
He had no idea that visit would change the course of his life.
“I was all in,” he recalls of that first experience. “Once I saw them come home, the expressions on their faces, the welcome home they got—it touched my heart in a way I hadn’t expected.”
That heartfelt spark grew into a decade-long commitment. Today, Petrie serves as the volunteer President of the Board of Directors for Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight, a nonprofit hub in a national network that has transported over 100,000 veterans to Washington. Under Tom’s leadership, the Buffalo Niagara chapter alone has flown more than 1,000 local veterans to their long-overdue recognition.
Honor Flight: Wisconsin WWII veteran takes lifetime trip at age 100
MILWAUKEE – It’s a day made especially for Wisconsin veterans; to remember, to honor, to reflect.
Trip of a lifetime
What we know:
On a Saturday morning in late April, a mighty group of the bravest Wisconsinites boarded a plane in Milwaukee, bound for our nation’s capital.
“How does it feel?” FOX6 News asked Freddie Stachoviak, one of the 114 veterans on Mission #79.
“Pretty good,” Freddie responded. “It’s one of the things on my bucket list.”
Freddie Stachoviak is fine to blend in with this crowd. In fact, he would prefer it. But at 100 years old, he’s the sole member of this Honor Flight representing the Greatest Generation. It’s a chapter of his life he remembers well.
Trenton veteran, 92, has time of his life on Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.
The News Herald
Jackie Martin
“That was the best trip I’ve taken in my life,” Bob Williams, a retired veteran of the U.S. Air Force, said of a flight reserved strictly for those who served in the military.
Williams, a 92-year-old Trenton resident, recently took the trip with about 70 other veterans.
It was organized through the Mid-Michigan Honor Flight Organization.
According to one of his daughters, Rhonda Janice, of Brownstown Twp., the family knew this would be the trip of a lifetime for him — and it didn’t fall short of expectations.
Rhonda Janice traveled to Washington, D.C. with her father, Bob Williams, 92, a retired member of the U.S. Air Force. The trip for veterans was organized through the Mid-Michigan Honor Flight Organization and more than 70 veterans . (Photo courtesy of the Williams family)
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The flight departed out of Flint Bishop International Airport.