![\"Honor](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Honor-Flight-Network-logo-3-2014.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>Honor Flight Northwest Ohio, which has provided free flights to Washington, D.C., for World War II veterans since 2008, will be making four final flights this year, although two of those flights, on April 30 and May 21, are already booked up, said Van Wert County Veterans Service Officer Barry Johns.<\/p>\n\u201cThey\u2019re doing four flights this year and then they\u2019re done,\u201d Johns noted, adding that he is trying to get a group of local World War II vets together to take one of the final two flights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could get five or six World War II veterans together, we\u2019d like to go as a group, if possible,\u201d the veterans service officer added.<\/p>\n
Johns said he has applications and all information needed for the two remaining open flights, which will take place June 18 and September 24. With some requirements changing, especially for those who want to be flight guardians \u2013 volunteers who help the veterans during the trip \u2013 all those who want to take the flights should come to the Veterans Service Office in the Courthouse so that Johns can provide them with information needed to participate.<\/p>\n
The county veterans service officer also cautioned those wanting to be guardians that they need to be physically able to perform those duties. \u201cReally, the vets usually don\u2019t have too many problems with the flights, but I\u2019ve seen some guardians come back far more pooped than the vets,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n
Right now, he noted, there are a number of seats available on the final two Honor Flight Northwest Ohio flights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a good chance to getting on the June or September flight if we get the applications up there,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n
Honor Flight was first organized in 2005 to take World War II veterans to the then-new World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
At this point, with most World War II vets either dead or already served, some of the Honor Flight organizations are now beginning to offer flights for Korean and Vietnam veterans as well.<\/p>\n
Although the Toledo-based Honor Flight Northwest Ohio is ending its operations, there are several other Honor Flight organizations, including the national Honor Flight Network in Springfield and Honor Flight organizations in Columbus, Dayton and Fort Wayne, Ind., that are still providing flights for veterans.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, there are 130 groups in 43 states providing free flights for veterans wanting to see their memorial in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor With the Toledo Honor Flight organization closing down after this year, local World War II veterans are being urged to apply for the remaining two flights. Honor Flight Northwest Ohio, which has provided free flights to Washington, D.C., for World War II veterans since 2008, will be making four final flights this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:27:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}