Never Forgotten Honor Flight
MOSINEE, WI (WSAU) — The final Never Forgotten Honor Flight of 2022 takes off Monday morning with 108 Veterans on board.
NFHF co-founder Jim Campbell says those on the flight have been in their queue since before the COVID-19 pandemic put a two-year pause on the program. That’s caused a two-year backlog for the program, but they are working to get everyone scheduled in a timely manner.
“We start with 110,” said Campbell. “Then we try to keep the ratio of guardians to Veterans as low as possible because they are hard enough to keep track of when you have one, let alone two or three. We want to fill the seats with as many Veterans as possible.”
The airlines the program works with also help by taking out first-class seating which allows for up to ten extra seats on each flight.
Campbell says adding flights has been discussed several times over the 12-year history of NFHF. However, with all the planning that goes into each flight, it’s unlikely they will do that.
Monday’s flight consists of one Korean-era Veteran. The rest served during Vietnam.
Those who would like to get on the wait list for a future flight can do so by filling out the application on the Honor Flight website. Campbell emphasizes that the criteria hasn’t changed, Veterans only need to have served in active duty during the dates listed for each war. Serving in a support role does not disqualify someone from the NFHF experience.
“The only people who don’t deserve it are the 99% of the population who never wore the fabric of our United States Military. Because there’s only one percent that have done that,” added Campbell.
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