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WORLD WAR II VETERANS EAGER TO VISIT MEMORIAL
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Honor Flight flies vets to Washington D.C. at
no charge.
Story here...
http://www.al.com/news/
huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/
1170584668239520.xml&coll=1
Story below:
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WWII vets eager to visit memorial
100-plus sign up for flights; focus shifts to
raising money
By PATRICIA C. McCARTER
Times Staff Writer,
patricia.mccarter@htimes.com
The first step in organizing a local Honor Flight chapter was to find
enough World War II veterans who want to be flown at no charge to
Washington, D.C., to see their memorial.
That step can be checked off the to-do list.
Since the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Honor Flight was announced a week
ago, more than 100 veterans have signed up, with dozens more
applications still in veterans' hands.
Joe Fitzgerald, local Honor Flight board president, said the speed with
which those applications came in suggests that there are even more World
War II veterans in the area than the 200 to 400 he estimated.
"There's a genuine interest and excitement by these veterans to go see
their memorial," said Fitzgerald, a defense contractor who is the son of
a World War II veteran.
Step No. 2 is finding helpers, or guardians, to accompany the veterans
on the one-day trip. So far, 14 guardian applications have been turned
in, but Fitzgerald said "scores more" have contacted him to help.
Organizers ask that if financially possible, guardians pay the up to
$1,000 cost of their trip.
Step No. 3 is raising the money to pay for the program.
It won't be as easy as the first two.
For the first Tennessee Valley Honor Flight scheduled to fly 10 veterans
to the memorial and back home on April 4, $20,000 to $30,000 must be
raised. The commercial flights are expensive because they're round-trip
for one day, plus bus transportation from the airport to the memorial
must be handled.
Fitzgerald has drafted a letter for civic organizations, companies and
individuals, asking for donations. He's also asking them to make Honor
Flight part of their annual giving.
"No amount is too small, and certainly no amount is too large," he said.
"After we do our first trip with 10 veterans, we want to plan three or
four more trips a year to get these soldiers and sailors to their
monument.
"Thankfully, we've still got a lot of them around who want to see it.
They deserve to see it. And once we get all of our World War II veterans
taken care of, we'll start sending vets from the Korean War and the
Vietnam War to see their memorials."
Tax-deductible donations can be mailed to Honor Flight, c/o The
Huntsville Times, P.O. Box 1487 West Station, Huntsville, AL 35807.
Honor Flight was founded two years ago by retired Air Force Capt. Earl
Morse in Ohio. A physician's assistant in a veterans hospital and a
private pilot, Morse became troubled by the number of World War II
veterans he met who hadn't seen the memorial, so he formed an
organization to fly them back and forth.
Almost 900 veterans have been seen the memorial, thanks to Honor Flight.
Honor Flight web site here...
http://www.honorflight.org/map.html
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Larry Scott --
