Tomorrow the next mission of the Great River Honor Flight program will head to Washington DC. This will be the 31st mission overall since the program started back in 2010 and will bring the total number of local veterans who have flown to Washington, D.C. for free to 967. This is also the first trip where every veteran going is from the Vietnam era.

The trip will depart from John Wood Community College around 2 a.m. Thursday morning. The 32 Veterans and their Guardians will travel by charter bus to St. Louis Lambert International Airport where they will board a flight to Baltimore and then on to our nation’s capital.

The first stop will be at the Vietnam and Korea War Memorials then a visit to the nearby Lincoln Memorial. Next on their itinerary is a stop at the World War II Memorial, which sits next to the Washington Monument and where a group picture will be taken.

Other stops later that day include the Iwo Jima Memorial, dedicated to that WWII battle and the Marines who fought there, plus an emotional visit to Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown. The trip will end with a visit to the Air Force Memorial that overlooks the Pentagon and Washington DC where they will also enjoy dinner prior to returning to Reagan National Airport for their trip home.

The direct flight will take them back to St. Louis where they will board a bus for the trip to Quincy. The expected arrival time will be around 10:30 p.m. at John Wood’s Sports Complex.

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