Seventy-four veterans from across the region, including 14 from Northwest Arkansas, will be boarding an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport on April 20.
Among those participating will be one veteran from Siloam Springs, one veteran from Gentry, three veterans from Decatur and one veteran from Colcord, Okla.
The public is invited to a send-off at a celebration for the veterans to be held at the Cherokee Casino starting at 6 p.m. April 19 and to welcome them back home at the airport at 9:40 p.m. April 20, according to Rob Hopkins, director of the Arkansas portion of Oklahoma and Arkansas Honor Flight.
"From everything I've heard about, of everything they get to see and do, the thing that means the most to them is whenever they come back in to the airport and the local community is there supporting them," Hopkins said.
Veterans on the honor flight will include those who have served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, Hopkins said. The flights are no longer restricted to World War II veterans, he said, explaining the goal is to get veterans to see the sights in Washington, D.C., while they are still able to make the trip.
The send-off celebration at the Cherokee Casino will include a ceremony where veterans will present a copy of the constitution to their guardians and they will receive a commemorative coin from their guardians. Guardians are family members or volunteers who will be accompanying the veterans on the trip.
The casino has donated 100 rooms for veterans and their guardians to stay in on the night of April 19. At around 4:30 a.m. April 20 the veterans will board charter buses bound for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. The buses will be escorted to the airport by local police, fire departments and members of the Patriot Guard, Hopkins said. The Siloam Springs Fire Department's ladder truck will hoist a U.S. Flag above the Arkansas Highway 59 bridge over U.S. Highway 412 to honor the veterans, he said.
Once at the airport, local dignitaries and city officials will be present to shake the veterans' hands, then the airport fire department will shoot water cannons over the plane as it taxis down the runway to salute the veterans as they leave, Hopkins said.
While in Washington, D.C., veterans will visit the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, and Arlington Cemetery, where they will get to see the changing of the guard. They will visit other sites as time allows, he said.
Hopkins hopes to fill the lobby of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport with community members cheering on the veterans when they arrive home. The reception will include music from the Decatur High School Band and The Singing Men of Arkansas, he said.
This will be the first local honor flight since the Arkansas and Oklahoma Honor Flight organizations were combined into one, Hopkins said. The newly formed local organization plans to provide one honor flight from Northwest Arkansas and one from the Tulsa International Airport each year, he said.
For more information about Oklahoma and Arkansas Honor Flight, including applications for veterans, guardians and volunteers who wish to participate in future flights, visit www.oahonorflight.org. For more on the national organization visit www.honorflight.org.
General News on 04/13/2016