Honor Flight program helps vets see WWII memorial

Phillip Pittman, an ambassador with the Bluegrass Chapter of Honor Flight, spoke about the program Tuesday at the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce monthly membership luncheon.

An effort to help the nation’s remaining surviving World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. to see the national memorial for that war was the main focus at the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce monthly membership luncheon Tuesday.

Phillip Pittman and John Stokes, both with the Bluegrass Chapter of Honor Flight, spoke to chamber members about the program which started a decade ago, and is responsible for flying 139,000 veterans to see the WWII Memorial in that nation’s capital.

“We want to increase that number as much as we can by speaking to organizations like this,” said Pittman to the capacity crowd at the luncheon.

“We believe that this part of Kentucky has been a little bit neglected as far as getting the word out and making people aware of the program. We are going to rectify to the best of our ability.”

Pittman and Stokes, both Ambassadors for Honor Flight, said they’ve made over 40 presentations about the program to groups since the beginning of the year, and are averaging about one veteran a day applying to take advantage of Honor flight.

The program was started by a physician’s assistant in Springfield, OH who was saddened by the fact that many of his patients, themselves veterans of WWII, had not seen the monument. Along with seven friends, the group used private planes to take 12 veterans to Washington, D.C. to see the monument, which was dedicated in 2004, almost 60 years after the end of WWII.
WWII officially ended on Sept. 2, 1945.

Honor Flight currently has 133 “hubs” in 42 U.S. states. The group provides all-expenses-paid, one-day trips to that nation’s capital to see the memorial.

The Bluegrass Chapter of Honor Flight plans to fly three “missions” this year. Two will leave out of Louisville on May 16 and June 6. The third, a full flight, will leave from Bluegrass Field in Lexington and will carry 72 veterans and their guardians.

Pittman said he hopes to make the “full flight” at least an annual event, but would like to go more than once a year.

Stokes spoke about the program before showing an emotional eight-minute video featuring veterans who had taken part in past honor flights.

Kentucky has about 10,500 living veterans from WWII.

Pittman said the organization is looking for guardians as well to go along with veterans on the flights. Guardians must make a donation of $500 to go.

He said many of those that fought in WWII were away from home for four or five years, and came home with little downtime to process the experience.

“They came home and they started rebuilding our nation right away, literally,” he said. “Many talk about getting on a train, getting home at eight at night and then get up to go to work the next day. They got no welcome home. No thank you. We want to rectify that.”

Stokes and Pittman said the organization is focusing mainly on WWII veterans and Korean War vets, but is also beginning to take application for veterans of the Vietnam War.

Anyone interested in taking part in an honor flight is encouraged to contact the organization by phone at 888-998-1941 or by email at info@honorflightbluegrass.org. The organizations officials website can be found at www.honorflightbluegrass.org.
Phillip Pittman can be reached directly at: pittmanpnc8657@aol.com. Stokes can be contacted at csxjohn@bellsouth.net.