thedrifter
05-03-07, 08:34 AM
600 WWII vets getting wish to see memorial
By Andrea Stone - USA Today
Posted : Thursday May 3, 2007 9:27:14 EDT
World War II veterans begin arriving in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as part of the largest airlift to date by a volunteer group dedicated to making sure as many as possible see the National World War II Memorial before they die.
The 600 veterans, who come from six states and include more than 100 arriving in a charter jet from Fargo, N.D., are guests of Honor Flight, a nonprofit group started a few months after the memorial was dedicated in May 2004. Before this weekend, the group had flown more than 1,000 veterans to Washington. The trips are paid for through private donations.
The trip by the Fargo group, which includes North Dakota and Minnesota veterans, is costing $111,000, says Carol Anhorn, sales manager of WDAY-TV, one of the private sponsors. Nearly half the money, she says, was raised through an all-day telethon at a local mall. A second trip is planned for September.
Honor Flight covers all costs, including airfare, tour bus service and food, as well as scooter or wheelchair rental and even oxygen for some of its elderly travelers. For overnight trips, it pays for a hotel, too. All World War II veterans, regardless of financial situation or physical limitations, are eligible to apply. Information is available at honorflight.org.
“We feel that World War II veterans have given enough,” says Earl Morse, Honor Flight’s founder. He is a retired Air Force captain whose father served in Vietnam and who has a son now serving as an airman. Now a physician assistant at a Veterans Administration clinic in Springfield, Ohio, Morse got the idea after realizing that many of his aging patients wanted to see the memorial but were unable to get there.
Morse, 48, a private pilot, appealed for help from his aero club at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. Immediately, 11 pilots volunteered to fly veterans to Washington and escort them for a day.
The first formation of six small planes carrying 12 veterans left from Dayton in May 2005. Soon, Honor Flight spread to at least 10 other states. Some veterans still get private rides to Washington, but the program increasingly has relied on commercial and charter flights to meet rising demand from veterans, many in their 80s and 90s.
Morse says the group gets about 95 applications a month, but at a time when 1,200 veterans are dying each day, “time is not on our side.” Fifty-seven veterans have died while on a waiting list to visit the memorial.
“We have a lot of World War II veterans who will never see their memorial,” Morse says, “unless we fly them out there.”
Ellie
By Andrea Stone - USA Today
Posted : Thursday May 3, 2007 9:27:14 EDT
World War II veterans begin arriving in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as part of the largest airlift to date by a volunteer group dedicated to making sure as many as possible see the National World War II Memorial before they die.
The 600 veterans, who come from six states and include more than 100 arriving in a charter jet from Fargo, N.D., are guests of Honor Flight, a nonprofit group started a few months after the memorial was dedicated in May 2004. Before this weekend, the group had flown more than 1,000 veterans to Washington. The trips are paid for through private donations.
The trip by the Fargo group, which includes North Dakota and Minnesota veterans, is costing $111,000, says Carol Anhorn, sales manager of WDAY-TV, one of the private sponsors. Nearly half the money, she says, was raised through an all-day telethon at a local mall. A second trip is planned for September.
Honor Flight covers all costs, including airfare, tour bus service and food, as well as scooter or wheelchair rental and even oxygen for some of its elderly travelers. For overnight trips, it pays for a hotel, too. All World War II veterans, regardless of financial situation or physical limitations, are eligible to apply. Information is available at honorflight.org.
“We feel that World War II veterans have given enough,” says Earl Morse, Honor Flight’s founder. He is a retired Air Force captain whose father served in Vietnam and who has a son now serving as an airman. Now a physician assistant at a Veterans Administration clinic in Springfield, Ohio, Morse got the idea after realizing that many of his aging patients wanted to see the memorial but were unable to get there.
Morse, 48, a private pilot, appealed for help from his aero club at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. Immediately, 11 pilots volunteered to fly veterans to Washington and escort them for a day.
The first formation of six small planes carrying 12 veterans left from Dayton in May 2005. Soon, Honor Flight spread to at least 10 other states. Some veterans still get private rides to Washington, but the program increasingly has relied on commercial and charter flights to meet rising demand from veterans, many in their 80s and 90s.
Morse says the group gets about 95 applications a month, but at a time when 1,200 veterans are dying each day, “time is not on our side.” Fifty-seven veterans have died while on a waiting list to visit the memorial.
“We have a lot of World War II veterans who will never see their memorial,” Morse says, “unless we fly them out there.”
Ellie