“Honor Flight” is a nation-wide program conceived to transport as many World War II veterans and other veterans who may be terminally ill as possible (at no cost to them) to visit the National World War II Memorial in Washington DC, if they have not seen it yet. In May 2009, the very first “Honor Flight” effort was organized for individuals in our local area - with about 90 veterans from our area were transported to Washington, D.C. to visit Arlington Cemetery, the National WW II memorial, and the Marine Corps National Museum on their way home. Since then, local Honor Flight bus trips have been held each year on a Saturday in April and October. Participating veterans in the Virginia Beach area board a bus there early on Saturday morning and then link-up with other participants for a departure ceremony in Williamsburg.
VIPMOAA members may help out with the Williamsburg departure by:
- Making a monetary donation to help defray the costs (it costs approximately $150 to sponsor one veteran) or “Sponsor” a specific veteran;
- Volunteering to serve as an escort for individual WWII vets throughout the event.
- Volunteering to transport veterans who may need transportation to the debarkation points;
- Helping to “spread the word” so as many eligible veterans as possible know about the event.
- Showing up on Saturday morning, to give the veterans a big “send-off!” in Williamsburg.
This is a very meaningful event for our chapter members to support. If you’d like to help on the VIPMOAA team, please let us know by e-mail or by calling Jack Greenhalgh, who is an active member of VIPMOAA as well as a member of the Board of Directors of our local Honor Flight. To participate in the send-off, you need not register ahead-of-time with Honor Flight. But guardians and veteran-attendees do need to register in advance - see Honor Flight contact info / Honor Flight website, at right.
VIPMOAA POINT OF CONTACT:
JACK GREENHALGH, CDR, USN, Ret
(757) 345-5506
jack.greenhalgh@cox.net
VIPMOAA'S support of Honor Flight was covered in MOAA Officer Magazine, Oct 2011 edition.
|
 |
| Welcoming Banner at an Honor Flight send-off. photo by Melva Mallison |
|
|
|
NEXT FLIGHT:
20 OCT 2012
VIPMOAA, WEAR:
RED, WHITE, & BLUE,
MOAA BADGE
& VIPMOAA NAME TAG.
Bring a small flag to wave if possible.
|
|
|