Dozens of Iowa veterans, including a retired sailor who’s more than a century old, will take part in this week’s special honor flight to Washington, D.C.

Ron Newsum, the coordinator for the Brushy Creek Honor Flight, says the veterans will be flying on a chartered jet from the Fort Dodge Regional Airport. “We’re taking about 162 or 163 people on it of which there’s going to be about 140 veterans,” he says, “the balance being staff and that type of thing.” This will be the 23rd honor flight for the organization which is dedicated to serving veterans in 30 northern and central Iowa counties. They are scheduled to depart shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday.

“We have one World War Two veteran who’s a 102-year-old Navy veteran going,” Newsum says. “We’ve got about seven Korean War veterans, and the balance is Vietnam veterans and peacetime veterans.” The delegation will arrive at Dulles International Airport at mid-morning to tour the war memorials and the sights of Washington, D.C. by bus. They will also visit Arlington National Cemetery for the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The veterans will return home late Wednesday night.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)