PHOENIX – Our final trip of spring 2019 will fly to Washington, D.C. early Monday morning, April 29th from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. This will be the last of four Honor Flight trips for central & northern Arizona this spring.

Our Veterans flying with us served in both WWII and the Korean War. We will have three former prisoners of war (POW) onboard. Two of them were prisoners of Japan in WWII. The third, served in both the Korean War and Vietnam War, and was a POW for eight years in Vietnam. We will also have a husband and wife on this trip who both served in the Korean War.

Honor Flight Arizona took its first flight of 11 WWII Veterans in November 2009, and has now flown more than 1,700 WWII Veterans, nearly 600 Korean War Veterans, and more than 1,400 guardians. We have a base of approximately 50 active volunteers.

There is currently a waiting list for Vietnam Veterans, and we hope to begin flying them in 2020 or 2021. They are encouraged to sign up on our website.

We thank Southwest Airlines, who is one of our major sponsors, and their employees. In addition, TSA employees compassionately process our Veterans through security.

On every trip, there have been so many handshakes, hugs, kisses, and “Thank you for your service” comments along the way. It all makes a huge difference in the lives of our Veterans. Many Veterans do not like to be called heroes – they will say that title is for those who did not make it home. But, because of all they sacrificed and endured, heroes are indeed what they are.

We will resume our flights for the fall 2019 season in September.