Flying with honor

There will be a heroes’ welcome this month in the nation’s capitol for more than 300 Iowa veterans.

This year, Honor Flight Network is paying a small tribute to Korean War era veterans with a daytrip Sept. 30 to Washington D.C.

The purpose of Honor Flight is to provide a resource for “senior heroes,” many who are in their 80s, to visit their memorial.

“It’s just wonderful, the energy,” said Bill Ballinger, Honor Flight Network volunteer.

Ballinger said the trip provides closure for many veterans. It provides closure to a long military career, a way to pay tribute to those who served and the service men and women who were lost.

“They are reliving some of the good times and some of the bad,” Ballinger said. “It’s therapeutic in my opinion.”

Local veterans honored

It has been 63 years since Bill Crittenden last visited Washington D.C. This time, the trip has a new and sentimental meaning for him.

Crittenden, who is participating in this year’s Honor Flight, was one of 11 students who visited D.C. in 1951 with his senior class at Arispe High School. A year after his graduation, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he served as a B-36 gunner until 1956.

“Oh my gosh,” Crittenden said. “I think this just kind of wraps everything up of being in the service at that time.”

From the model B-36 bomber that sits on top of his refrigerator, the American flag that stands tall on his front lawn, the meticulously typed journal chronologically capturing his life and time in the military, to his volunteer service with Afton Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 8882, Crittenden is proud to have served in the United States military.

He said he is looking most forward to sharing this experience with his friends and fellow service men Eddie Ehm, Dick Ide, Dick Ross, Orville Lines and George Foster, and finding out who the other local veterans will be joining him on the Honor Flight.

“I think all of them feel the same way I do,” Crittenden said.

Honor Flight

Honor Flight is a free service started in 2005 by Earl Morse, a retired Air Force captain turned physician assistant. After realizing veterans who he treated every day in his clinic would not be able to visit the new World War II Memorial built in their honor, Morse partnered with small-business owner Jeff Miller to establish the first Honor Flight.

Since their first flight, consisting of 12 veterans, Honor Flight Network has grown into more than 100 chapters across the nation. Because of donations made to Honor Flight Network, more than 100,000 veterans have been transported at no cost to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials and monuments dedicated to their efforts.

This Honor Flight, 11 bus loads of veterans will depart 6:30 a.m. Sept. 30 from Des Moines International Airport and start their day in D.C. at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.

Before the day is complete, veterans will have witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and visit the Air Force Memorial, which over looks the capitol, before a drive-through tour of the city. They are expected to return 11 p.m. in Des Moines the same day.

Information about Honor Flight Network and the application process is available online at www.honorflight.org.