Fifteen residents of The Villages and Lady Lake will join 11 Lake County residents as they will be honored on the Villages Honor Flight to Washington D.C. on Saturday.
These veterans served with distinction and honor during World War II and will be duly recognized and thanked for their sacrifices and service to America.
“The sacrifices made by these and the other vets of WWII during that most perilous period of world history cannot be overstated. They literally saved the world. Our hope is this flight to honor them in some small way recognizes and thanks them for their valiant service,” said Mark Erdich of Villages Honor Flight.
You can help welcome the heroes when they arrive back home.
A Welcome Home Ceremony will be open to the public at American Legion Post 347 on County Road 466 and Rolling Acres Road, Lady Lake. Live entertainment begins at 11:15 p.m., and the buses transporting them from the airport are scheduled to arrive at 11:55 p.m.. Attendees are asked to bring a chair, an American flag and a friend.
Villages Honor Flight is a hub of the National Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization created solely to honor America’s veterans for their sacrifices. Veterans are flown, without expense to them, to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials established in their honor and visit Arlington National Cemetery to witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Villages Honor Flight serves veterans in Lake, Sumter, Marion, Hernando and Citrus counties.
More than 315 veterans, principally WWII veterans, from these areas have registered with Villages Honor Flight to make this trip of a life time. At the conclusion of this flight over 175 veterans will have flown on a Villages Honor Flight. Plans are for three additional flights in 2013 with 25 to 50 veterans on each flight.