A delegation of Iowa veterans will fly on a chartered jet out of the Fort Dodge Regional Airport tomorrow (Saturday) morning for the latest Iowa Honor Flight to Washington D.C.
Charlie Walker serves on the Brushy Creek Honor Flight Board which is organizing the special event. “This is our 18th flight,” Walker says. “We started on May 1st of 2010. The cost of each flight is around $100,000. It’s all come from mainly local donations.” Over the past decade, this group’s flights have taken nearly three-thousand veterans from more than 50 Iowa counties to the nation’s capitol to visit the various memorials.
This weekend’s Honor Flight will be taking about 150 Iowa veterans to Washington. “On this flight, we’ve got two World War Two veterans, about 15 to 20 Korean War veterans, and the rest of them are Vietnam War veterans,” Walker says. Last week, a reception was held for the veterans in Fort Dodge as they prepare for the trip. Veterans on the flight will neet to be at the airport about 5:30 in the morning.
“We charter a 737 out of Sun Country Airlines out of Minneapolis,” he says. “They fly in in the morning and take us to D.C. and bring us back home, usually about 10:30 at night. It’s a long day for those guys.” A reception to welcome the Honor Flight participants home will be held around 10:30 Saturday night at the Fort Dodge airport. Another Honor Flight is set for September 21 from Fort Dodge.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)