Honor Flight to take off Saturday
Another 69 U.S. military veterans will make their Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. Saturday for a day trip to see the memorials to their service.
Saturday’s flight will include 11 World War II veterans, 29 from the Korean War era and 34 from Vietnam, Honor Flight Kentucky board member George Campbell said.
The veterans will be accompanied by 69 guardians throughout the day as they travel to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and others.
This flight is sponsored by Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, Campbell said.
“It’s an honor for us to sponsor these heroes from Kentucky,” Touchstone Manager of Member Services Tony Settles said in a news release. “The trip is a small thanks for their big sacrifices. We owe them so much for the freedoms we enjoy.”
This flight includes two of the oldest known World War II veterans in Kentucky, 97-year-old Henry Howard Smith of Flemingsburg and 96-year-old Frank Zupan of Frenchburg, according to the release.
Five Clark County residents will also be on the flight: Kenneth Ray Barnett, Clyde D. Barrett, Danny O. Graham, George C. Harris and Charles Gary Townsend.
This is the eighth year Touchstone has sponsored Honor Flight.
Campbell said the schedule will be a little different this time, because of construction at Reagan National Airport in Washington. The flight will depart Bluegrass Airport in Lexington Saturday morning and return around 8 p.m. The public is invited for a welcome home ceremony at the airport.
Campbell said the organization is also gearing up for its next flight Oct. 13 for Vietnam veterans. So far, 70 veterans are scheduled to be on that flight, he said.