World War II Vets Final Mission

Today is a special day! If you are lucky enough to have a living survivor of WWII, you will fully understand how special today is. I was honored to drive Lyle Perkins, step-father in-law, to his honor flight! For those that don’t know – Honor Flight Arizona is a member of the national Honor Flight Network. The overall mission of the national network is to “Transport America’s veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit those memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices.” This day had been building for quite some time. Lyle was scheduled in May for his final mission, but had to postpone due to illness. He is on his way!

Our regional hub has taken that mission a little further… “The mission of Honor Flight Arizona is to pay homage to our WWII veterans by providing the support needed for them to complete a three-day journey of honor and remembrance to their memorial in Washington, D.C. at no cost to them.  Our secondary mission is to educate our youth about the impact of WWII and our WWII veterans on the freedom of our nation.” They are a 100% volunteer organization! To pay for all of this – they do fundraising and take donations…

It is a special day for Lyle and 27 fellow WWII Vets get to go on that final mission! The day started off with meeting down at the state capital for check-in and breakfast provided by the state senate. For that brief hour they were at the capital, the stories I heard. One marine told me, that he was glad that breakfast was not steak and eggs. He explain to me, that every time they were going into a tough battle or invasion – they would always get steak and eggs for breakfast. He said, ” it this could be our last meal.” These are folks that for the most part did not know each other before they met today. They shared plenty! I bet they will be sharing the whole trip.

The day continued with a limo ride, police and honor escort to the airport! Then off to Washington, DC. The itinerary will be filled with plenty to do at the capital. Time at the White House, memorials and general site seeing are in store for them.

I was honored to be in attendance this morning and meeting some pretty cool people.

Please think about donating to this organization. They are trying very hard to get every WWII vet to take that last final mission. From those that have attended, they said it was a great trip! I hope that the organization can reach their goals!