Local residents will have the opportunity to honor 24 local veterans participating in a Flightless Honor Flight on Saturday, Nov. 17.
Those participating include seven veterans from World War II, nine from the Korean War, three from the Vietnam War, four from the 1950s and one from the 1980s.
Fifteen served in the Army, five in the Navy and four in the Air Force. They come from The Villages, Wildwood, Lady Lake, Leesburg, Summerfield, Bushnell, Eustis, Ocala, Okahumpka and Pinellas Park.
The traditional Welcome Home Celebration at the American Legion Post 347 on Rolling Acres Road will begin at 2:30 p.m. Entertainment will start at 1 p.m. and will include members of Clown Alley #179, The Villages Cheerleaders, The Villages Twirlers and Drum Corps, and Ralph DiNome and his Flashback band.
The public is invited to participate in the Welcome Home Celebration and is encouraged to bring a lawn chair and an American Flag.
Villages Honor Flight’s Flightless program began in September 2014 to give veterans who are unable to participate in a regular flight to Washington, D.C. – usually due to mobility issues – the opportunity to share the experience.
The Flightless program, through video technology and “a little magic,” recreates the entire experience of a normal mission except for the actual flight to our nation’s capital and back. And just like on the regular flights, each veteran will have a dedicated guardian, a preflight meeting to get the mission participants together for an orientation and some socialization, a special flight shirt and a squad-oriented social event.
This event will mark Villages Honor Flight’s final mission for 2018. There are six flights scheduled in 2019, beginning in March – two flightless and four to Washington, D.C. Villages Honor Flight serves veterans from Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion, and Sumter Counties. For more information, go to www.villageshonorflight.org.