Honor Flight is one of the most beautiful things this country still does. A nonprofit that flies aging veterans to Washington DC to visit the memorials built in their honor, free of charge, often for the first and only time. If you've never seen a planeload of WWII vets get a water cannon salute on the tarmac, you should. Here is what Honor Flight is, how it works, who qualifies, and exactly how you can help while there are still veterans left to honor.
The short version
- Honor Flight takes eligible veterans to Washington memorials at no cost to them.
- World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and terminally ill veterans receive priority.
- Guardians help veterans with mobility, medication, and the long travel day.
- You can help by donating, volunteering, writing letters, or referring a veteran.
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$12.00What Is Honor Flight?
Honor Flight is a national nonprofit network that transports American veterans, completely free, to Washington DC for a one-day visit to the war memorials built for their service. The trip covers airfare, ground transportation, meals, security escort, and a guardian to assist throughout the day. Veterans pay nothing.
The official organization is the Honor Flight Network, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It operates through more than 130 regional hubs across the United States, with each hub running its own flights, recruiting its own veterans, and raising its own money. Most hubs are staffed almost entirely by volunteers, including the medical teams that travel with each flight.
The mission is simple. Get every living WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War veteran to the memorials in Washington while they are still able to make the trip. Priority goes to WWII veterans and to any veteran with a terminal illness. After that, Korean War vets, then Vietnam vets, then later eras as capacity allows.
Honor Flight at a glance
| Cost to veteran | Zero. Everything is paid for. |
| Founded | 2005, in Springfield, Ohio |
| Network | 130+ regional hubs across all 50 states |
| Priority | WWII vets and terminally ill vets first |
| Trip length | One day for most hubs, two to three days for some |
Who Qualifies for an Honor Flight?
Eligibility varies a little from hub to hub, but the framework is the same across the network.
Veterans apply through their local hub. There is usually a waiting list, and priority is set by era and by health. A WWII vet in his late nineties moves to the front of the line. A Vietnam vet in good health may wait longer, but the network is actively shortening that wait as the WWII generation gets smaller every month.
Guardians, the volunteers who travel one-on-one with each veteran, are not free. Guardians pay their own way, usually somewhere between five hundred and a thousand dollars depending on the hub and the trip length. Many guardians are children or grandchildren of the veteran they escort. Others are local volunteers, off-duty cops, firefighters, nurses, and people who just want to give back. The guardian carries the bags, pushes the wheelchair, manages the medications, and stays at the veteran's side from before sunrise until after sunset.
What Happens on an Honor Flight
A typical Honor Flight day, from the predawn departure to the welcome home celebration.
| 1 | Arrival at the home airport before dawn. Veterans and guardians meet between 4 and 5 a.m. There is a quick orientation, breakfast, and a sendoff ceremony. Local fire departments often spray a water cannon salute over the plane as it taxis to the runway. TSA usually clears Honor Flight veterans through a separate expedited line. |
| 2 | Landing at Reagan or Dulles, escorted to the Mall. The flight arrives in Washington midmorning. A motorcade of buses, often with a police escort, carries the group to the National Mall. The first stop is almost always the WWII Memorial, where a brief ceremony is held. |
| 3 | Stops at every memorial relevant to the group. Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, Lincoln Memorial, Air Force Memorial, the Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima statue), and Arlington National Cemetery for the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Lunch is served on the bus or at a private location near the Mall. |
| 4 | Mail call on the flight home. Sometime in the air on the return flight, the guardians hand each veteran a sealed envelope full of letters. Letters from grandkids, from school classrooms, from old units, from strangers. This is the part that breaks even the toughest veterans. More on this below. |
| 5 | Welcome home celebration at the gate. The plane lands back home, often near midnight. The veterans walk or roll off the jet bridge to a packed terminal full of family, friends, strangers, scout troops, JROTC cadets, bagpipers, and people holding flags. Most welcome home crowds run two to three thousand strong. For many of these veterans, especially Vietnam vets, this is the welcome they never got the first time. |
The Mail Call Tradition
If you talk to anyone who has been on an Honor Flight, the moment they will tell you about is mail call.
It happens about an hour into the flight home. The cabin lights come up, the guardians walk down the aisle, and they put a thick envelope into the lap of every veteran on board. Inside are dozens of handwritten letters. Some are from family who wrote in secret. Some are from elementary school kids whose teachers organize letter drives. Some are from active duty service members. Some are from total strangers who just wanted to say thank you.
Why mail call? Because for many of these men, especially the WWII generation, getting mail in a war zone was the high point of any week. A letter from home meant someone was thinking of you, that the world you fought for still existed. Mail call on an Honor Flight is the closing of that loop, decades later, in the air over the country they served.
A visual detail connected to this remembrance tradition.
How to Support Honor Flight
Honor Flight is fueled by money, time, and letters. Every hub needs all three. Here are the cleanest ways to help.
The Honor Flight Network keeps a hub finder on its website. Plug in your zip code and it will tell you the closest hub, who runs it, and how to reach them. Most hubs are run by retired veterans and a small core of unpaid volunteers. They will take your call.
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Why It Matters Now
The WWII generation built the country we live in. They came home from the Pacific and Europe, took off the uniform, went to school on the GI Bill, raised the boomers, and largely never talked about what they saw. Most of them never saw the WWII Memorial, because it was not built until they were already in their eighties.
The Korean War generation got even less. The war they fought was called a police action, then a forgotten war, and the Korean War Memorial did not open until 1995. Many of those veterans died before their families ever fully understood where they had been or what they had done.
The Vietnam generation came home to a country that did not know how to look them in the eye. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was not dedicated until 1982. The first Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day was not declared until 2011. For most of them, an Honor Flight is the first formal thank you they have ever received from the country they served.
The window to honor these veterans in person is closing. Honor Flight exists to keep it open as long as humanly possible.
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Honor Flight FAQ
Is Honor Flight really free for the veteran?
Yes. Veterans pay nothing. Flights, ground transport, meals, security, medical staff, and a guardian to assist with the day are all covered by donations and volunteer time. The only people who pay are guardians, who cover their own travel costs.
How long does an Honor Flight last?
Most flights are a single, very long day. Veterans typically meet at their home airport between 4 and 5 a.m. and return late that evening, sometimes near midnight. A handful of hubs run two- or three-day trips with hotel stays for veterans who cannot manage a one-day turnaround.
How do I apply for an Honor Flight?
Apply through your local hub, not the national office. The Honor Flight Network website has a hub finder that locates the closest one by zip code. Each hub has its own application, waiting list, and review process. Priority goes to WWII veterans and to any veteran with a terminal illness.
Can family members fly along as guardians?
Yes, in most cases. A son, daughter, grandchild, niece, nephew, or close friend can apply to serve as the veteran's guardian. Guardians pay their own way, typically $500 to $1,500 depending on the hub. Many hubs prefer that the guardian not be the veteran's spouse, since spousal pairs sometimes have a harder day physically.
Do post-9/11 veterans qualify for Honor Flight?
Some hubs include post-9/11 and Cold War veterans on a space-available basis, especially veterans with terminal illness. Other hubs still focus exclusively on WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans. Policy varies by hub, so call yours to ask.
How can I write letters for mail call?
Contact your local hub and ask if they need mail call letters. Most do, year-round. Handwritten letters from kids, classrooms, fellow veterans, and family work best. Keep it simple. Tell the veteran you are grateful for their service, and tell them why it matters to you. Letters are usually screened by the hub before being handed out, so write something the veteran can read in front of strangers.
Honor Flight is one of the cleanest, simplest, most worth-your-time things you can do as an American who is paying attention. Donate. Volunteer. Write a letter. Show up at the airport on welcome home night. Or just call your grandfather and ask him if anyone has ever asked him what it was like over there. He has been waiting on that question for a long time.
For more on the men and memorials this trip honors, read our guides to the Iwo Jima flag raising, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Another way to honor the mission on Memorial Day weekend is the Rolling to Remember ride in DC, the largest annual motorcycle demonstration for POW MIA accounting and veterans care reform.
Keep reading: The Korean War: Why It's Called the Forgotten War, the three-year fight that history nearly forgot.
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Honor Them While You Still Can. Fly the flag. Wear the tribute. Show up for the welcome home. |
Related reading: Why we place coins on military graves and what each coin means.
Planning your visit? Read our full guide on how to visit a national cemetery on Memorial Day for what to bring, when to arrive, and the quiet rules nobody hands you at the gate.
