The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: PegLeg45 on March 29, 2009, 01:19:16 AM
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Please check out this site. Saw it on the Military channel and here it is......
Time is of the Essence.
Based on recent 2008 statistics, we are losing World War II veterans at the rate of approximately 1,000 per day. Honor Flight Network will continue do whatever it takes to fulfill the dreams of our veterans and help our senior heroes travel absolutely free.
Subsequent to the World War II veterans, our efforts will then focus on our Korean War and then Vietnam War veterans, honoring them similarly.
http://www.honorflight.org/about/
The Honor Flight Network program was conceived by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and Retired Air Force Captain. Earl wanted to honor the veterans he had taken care of for the past 27 years. After retiring from the Air Force in 1998, Earl was hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to work in a small clinic in Springfield, Ohio. In May of 2004, the World War II Memorial was finally completed and dedicated in Washington, D.C. and quickly became the topic of discussion among his World War II veteran patients.
Earl repeatedly asked these veterans if they would ever travel out to visit THEIR memorial. Most felt that eventually, somehow, they would make it to D.C., perhaps with a family member or friend.
As summer turned to fall and then winter, these same veterans returned to the clinic for their follow-up visits. Earl asked if they accomplished their dream of visiting the World War II Memorial. By now, for most of the veterans he asked, reality had settled in; it was clear to most that it simply wasn't financially or physically possible for them to make the journey. Most of these senior heroes were in their 80s and lacked the physical and mental wherewithal to complete a trip on their own. Families and friends also lacked the resources and time to complete the three- to four-day trip to the nation’s capital.
http://www.honorflight.org/index.cfm