The Villages Honor Flight is preparing for a major change in the way it operates.
Beginning Jan. 1, the organization that flies veterans to Washington, D.C. to see visit the monuments dedicated in their honor will only accept applications from those who are 80 or older.
A top Villages Honor Flight official said the change was necessary because during the past two years, the number of applications has exceeded the number of veterans flown to our nation’s capital by more than 100 percent. There currently are in excess of 500 veterans in the queue waiting to participate in a mission.
“As a result of this huge recent influx of applications, the wait time to fly is beginning to exceed two years. This is not acceptable,” said Joe Hambright, Chairman of the Villages Honor Flight Board of Directors.
All applications currently on file will not be affected by the change. The board considered a number of options, including charter flights, increasing the number of veterans per flight and flying more missions each year. But for many reasons none of those options were doable.
“To be clear, the intention of this change is to reduce the unacceptably long wait times,” Hambright said. “There is no change to our mission to send as many military veterans as possible to Washington.”
The Villages Honor Flight will continue to follow current rules for veteran mission placement. Those are based on the veterans’ military service years, with those who served during World War II being given highest priority, followed by those with service immediately after war, Korean War veterans, those who served in the late 1950s, etc.
The Villages Honor Flight was formed in late 2011 when late Villager Mark Erdrich gathered a small group to launch the effort. The organization made its first flight on May 26, 2012 and since that time has taken more than 1,400 veterans on 49 trips.
Some of those have included “flightless” missions, which are typically held at the Colony Cottage Recreation Center. Through video technology and creative effort, those missions recreate the entire experience of a normal trip except for the actual flight to Washington, D.C. and back.
Villages Honor Flight serves veterans in Citrus, Lake, Marion, Putnam and Sumter Counties. The group’s 50th mission will be held in April, with longtime volunteer Debbie Diroff – she has been on 25 missions – serving as flight leader. For more information, veteran, guardian and volunteer applications, go to www.villageshonorflight.org.
