Feel Good Friday - Honor Flight

Today’s Feel Good Friday coincides with Veterans Day, a day to honor those who have served in the United States military. One group that is making sure veterans get the recognition they deserve is Honor Flight. 

Founded in 2005 by by Jeff Miller and Earl Morse, the mission of Honor Flight is “to celebrate America's veterans by inviting them to share in a day of honor at our nation's memorials.” Coordinating with a network of 128 Honor Flight hubs around the country, veterans are transported to Washington, DC to visit the memorials and monuments dedicated to their service and sacrifice. 

The inaugural Honor Flight Tour took place in May of 2005. Six small planes flew out of Springfield, Ohio taking twelve World War II Veterans on a visit to the memorial in Washington, DC. Now commercial airlines are used to accommodate as many veterans as possible.

Top priority is given to America's most senior veterans, survivors of World War II and any veteran with a terminal illness who wish to visit their memorial. Next in line for the program are veterans from the Korean War, Vietnam War and all other veterans who served, on a chronological basis. The Honor Flight network, as a whole, serves over 22,000 veterans each year and, since they began in 2005, over 245,000 veterans have traveled Washington DC.

There is an Honor Flight Bay Area hub, founded in 2014, which covers California from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Oregon border. You can keep up with them by joining their Facebook page and tune in to KRON, channel 4 tonight at 6:30pm tonight where they will be showing a special segment on Honor Flight on their news broadcast. If you can’t wait until tonight, you can watch this 8-minute video highlight of Honor Flight from CBS Sunday Morning.

To honor and celebrate a veteran in your life, make a donation to Honor Flight and help them achieve their vision of “a nation where all of America's veterans experience the honor, gratitude, and community of support they deserve.” Happy Veterans Day!