Middle GA Honor Flight prepares for take-off

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — For several years now, Middle Georgia Honor Flight has worked to ensure that veterans from across 76 of Georgia’s central counties are given the opportunity to see the memorials that were built in remembrance of the wars they fought in and the friends they have lost. Their mission is to honor the sacrifices these soldiers made.

On Saturday, Sep. 10, 13 veterans — eight who served in Vietnam, two in Korea and three in World War II — will leave from the Macon Airport alongside their guardians for Washington D.C., where they will spend the day commemorating days before.

The Honor Air Flight program is a non-profit organization that has worked to bring veterans to D.C. at no cost since 2005. Middle Georgia’s program has been working since 2018, originally organized by retired United States Air Force members Ben Long and Roger Jennings.

Ben Sandifer, public relations representative with Middle Georgia Honor Fight, provided details on the expedition.

Middle Georgia’s program is one of three in the state, and the only one that travels by air — the others utilize buses.

Contour Airlines offers a plane that was formerly 50 seats, converted to 30, allowing spacious legroom and walkways during the flight. Once back on the ground in Baltimore, Maryland, the veterans will take a bus outfitted with bathrooms, charging stations and several other amenities out of the Baltimore-Washington International Airport and will make their way into D.C.

Finally in the nation’s capital, the veterans and their guardians will make their way to several of the city’s sites, including Arlington National Cemetery, the Air Force Memorial, the WWII, Vietnam War and Korean War Memorials and several others. The veterans will make their final stop at the Navy Memorial before returning to the airport, making their way home.

At this point, several of the veterans will think their day is done, however, Middle Georgia Honor Flight has more surprises in store. While in the air, volunteers will distribute “mail call,” where the 13 veterans will be given letters, cards and small packages from friends, family and strangers thanking them for their service and wishing them well.

As a final hoo-rah to the day, the veterans will land at the Middle Georgia Airport, deplane, and be greeted by hundreds of people waiting to welcome them home. As they step out of the plane and back into the airport, friends, family, community groups and leaders will wait for them with signs and noisemakers, ready to celebrate their return home.

Jeanette Wall is the executive director of Middle Georgia Honor Flight, and will act as the bus captain for this upcoming venture. She said that she believed that many people have a passion to begin doing this work, including herself.

After her father, a Vietnam War veteran, went on the program’s very first flight, she began volunteering. According to Wall, there are several options for anyone looking to help.

“First and foremost, get the word out,” Wall said. “Getting the word out to all of those counties, trying to find the veterans to offer them this trip, that’s our first thing: spread the word.

“You can sign up to be a volunteer, we’re always looking for volunteers. [You can] be a guardian, sign up and experience this trip of a lifetime by being a guardian with one of these amazing veterans. Then, of course, sponsorship. We are a 501c3, a non-profit organization. None of us are paid, we’re all volunteers, so the money that is donated to our organization goes to help support all the costs associated with the trip.”

Bob Long is the vice president of Middle Georgia Honor Flight, and is the flight captain for the September trip. To Long, an Air Force veteran, the program is all about providing the appreciation that many soldiers did not receive when returning home.

“[Roger Jennings and I] do it because, it’s almost like comradery,” Long said. “We’ve all deployed, we’ve all come back, a lot of times the people outside of our own family circles don’t know what we do, where we’ve been — there’s no gratitude. This is our way of showing all the veterans the gratitude we share with them for the sacrifices they’ve made.”

If you or someone you know would like to take part in the Honor Flight’s work, either as a veteran or volunteer, you can sign up at their website, www.middlegahonorflight.org. There, you can sign up to be a volunteer, guardian or traveling veteran.

Middle Georgia Honor Flight invites those who wish to welcome home the vets to meet them at the Middle Georgia Airport in Macon, at around 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, Sep. 10. Anyone who would like to send a letter to a veteran for Mail Call can do so by sending a letter to 1114 GA Highway 96, Kathleen, GA 31047 before Sep. 4, or by emailing them to middlegahonorflight@gmail.com.

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