Veterans gather for Freedom Honor Flight reunion
Vets shared stories, pictures from May flight to D.C.
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Local Veterans who traveled to Washington D.C. in May came together to share memories Sunday.
It was for the Freedom Honor Flight Reunion hosted at the La Crosse Center. The Freedom Honor Flight is an organization that sets up trips for veterans to visit memorials created in their honor.
The trip is free of charge to veterans. Organizers say they are not the only ones who are enjoying themselves.
“What a great gift it is for any of us to be able to know that we gave somebody such a good day and a lot of these gentleman would say, these ladies would say it was the best day of their lives,” said Honor Flight Director Bill Hoel.
The Freedom Honor Flight not only gave let the veterans learn more about each other and the memorials they visited, but it also opened them up more to their families. “A lot of the veterans haven’t talked about World War 2 since World War 2,” said Hoel, “a lot of times their families have never heard the stories, they’ve never been able to coax them to tell those stories and now those stories come out.”
The next Freedom Honor Flight is currently scheduled for late September. For more information on the Freedom Honor Flight or if you know a veteran that wants to sign up, head to the Freedom Honor Flight website.
