PEORIA, Ill. – The 30th Greater Peoria Honor Flight is scheduled to take off from Peoria International Airport early Tuesday morning, bound for Washington D.C.
The plane, filled with 75 veterans and their guardians, will tour the nation’s capitol…sight-seeing and the war memorials.
Luke Rosenbaum, President of the Greater Peoria Honor Flight, tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan Show”, they’ve got a busy day ahead of them.
“We start with all the memorials…our first stop will be the World War II Memorial, and the last stop is the Air Force Memorial, which is my favorite, but I might be a little biased,” Rosenbaum says.
Even with 30 Honor Flights completed, there are still over 1,400 Vietnam vets still waiting to fly to D.C.
Rosenbaum says it’s an expensive endeavor putting on these Honor Flights, but thankfully the community continues to offer its financial support.
“I just had another individual say, I’m gonna send you some more funds…we want to get more veterans to D.C. We’re running about $109,000 each flight, once you factor in the plane and all the add-ons,” Rosenbaum says.
Even with 30 Honor Flights completed, Rosenbaum says there are still over 1,400 Vietnam War era vets alone that are still waiting to make the trip to D.C.
“Whether they got drafted, or just served, they’ve come back to Peoria…this is where they live, or in the surrounding area. We say Peoria, but you’ve got Washington, Metamora, Germantown Hills, Pekin… all these surrounding towns that funnel into Peoria, Rosenbaum says.
The honor flight is scheduled to return to PIA around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Organizers are asking the community to come out and show support for the vets on their return.
Shuttles from the CEFCU parking lot near the airport (5401 Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway) will start at 8 p.m.
To learn more about the Greater Peoria Honor Flight, click HERE.
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