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.