We began Honor Air in April 2008 in an effort to take our aging World War II veterans to see the recently completed WWII memorial on the Mall in Washington.  We ultimately made 10 trips through 2018.  The COVID pandemic paused our efforts to continue this tradition.  Also, the dynamics had changed as so many of the WWII veterans had passed away and those that were still with us were not able to make the trip.  The cost of chartering a flight and taking over 100 people had also become too expensive. 

We decided to try a concept that other groups had used of taking about 50 people (one bus load) on commercial flights.  This approach would take about 3 months to put into motion once we had a permitted date that we could travel.  Early last fall our Honor Air coordinators, Past President Gene Beckham and Alicia Hughes, applied to the National Park Service (NPS) for a permit to allow our group to come to the Mall memorials on April 4th.  Throughout the winter we repeatedly followed up with the NPS regarding our permit application but did not receive approval until two weeks before our requested April 4th date. 

Not wanting to give up, we contacted Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Military & Veteran Services Representative to assist us in trying to procure the permit for a late June flight.  We received the permit on May 3rd for a June 27th visit, giving us less than two months for implementation.  We immediately tried to book 50 seats for air travel but were only able to get a flight out around 7 AM, which is way too early in the morning to make this work logistically for gathering, getting on a bus in Roswell, travel to the airport, check-in, and proceeding through TSA security.  Very reluctantly, we had to decide to no longer pursue the trip this year.   

I am truly appreciative of Gene and Alicia’s efforts to make this trip work.  They have provided tremendous service to both our club and our veterans in organizing and implementing all our previous flights.  We still plan to find opportunities to honor our veterans.  Already, President-Elect Alex is working to organize a special veterans project for the coming Rotary year.  Please join me in thanking Gene and Alicia for their service.