Honor Flight prepares for Veterans ahead of Late April Departure

The Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota/Minnesota has pre flight event in preperatrion of their departure on April 30th, after a two year hiatus.

MOORHEAD, M.N. (KVRR) — Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota/Minnesota has pre-flight event in preparation of their departure on April 30, after a two year hiatus.

“Well when a lot of these men and women came home and went right to work, especially after world war II. They came home, went to work, raised a family, they never had the time, they never had the opportunity to do this type of thing,” said Dave Rice, Bus Captain, Veterans Honor Flight.

The Veterans Honor Flight of North Dakota/Minnesota has been grounded since October, 2019 due to COVID.

During that time they have been working to raise money for this year’s return to the skies.

“It’s nice to get back into the wheels spinning, for getting ready to take that next trip. We’re less than a month away now, so we’re excited to get moving and get those veterans back out there again,” said Tod Ganje, Board Member Veterans Honor Flight.

They will leave Saturday April 30th with veterans that served in World War II, The Korean Conflict, and The Vietnam War. For three days the group will visit memorials and more in the Nation’s capital.

“The Idea is to get to some of those open air memorials, we’ll see the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery. We’ll get a chance to get into the national archive so they can actually be up close to the Declaration of Independence, and The Bill of Rights and The Constitution,” said Ganje.

Organizers say they have heard many positive comments and for some this brings back emotional memories from their time served.

“A lot of these families of the Veterans we take, they say their mom or dad never talked about this before, but after the trip they open up they start talking about it,” said Rice.