Great River Honor Flight mission No. 65 to depart from Mark Twain High School on Thursday

CENTER, Mo. — A total of 33 veterans from Missouri, 26 from Ralls County, will participate in the next Great River Honor Flight mission to Washington, D.C., scheduled for Thursday, June 15.

This is the third of six trips planned for this year and will be the first time that the departure and homecoming will be at Mark Twain High School in Center.

This will be the 65th mission overall for local veterans since the program started serving the region in 2010. A total of 2,065 local veterans who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and between those conflicts have previously participated in this program.

The group includes 25 Vietnam veterans, one Korean War veteran and seven Armed Forces veterans who served between those conflicts. They will be accompanied by 23 guardians whose sole responsibility is making sure the veterans’ needs are addressed during the trip.

The trip will start at 2:30 a.m. with a bus ride to Lambert Field in St. Louis, where the group will board their flight to Baltimore and then on to DC. After the group’s return flight to St. Louis, a charter bus will bring them back to the multi-purpose building on the Mark Twain High School campus. The arrival time back in Center is approximately 10:30 p.m.

Great River Honor Flight was started on Veterans Day 2009 with its first flight scheduled on April 13, 2010.

Great River Honor Flight, a Missouri nonprofit corporation established in October of 2009, was created solely to honor local veterans for all they have sacrificed. This goal is accomplished by providing free transportation to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices.

For additional information, contact Carlos Fernandez at csfernandez1951@gmail.com or Great River Honor Flight, P.O. Box 3723, Quincy, IL 62305.