Honor Flight Tennessee Valley
The Final Mission
10-11 September 2010
(11 September 2010 Flight to/from the WWII Memorial)
Honor Flight Tennessee Valley began in the Summer of 2006 and
flew our first flight on April 4th 2007 with 14 WWII Veterans
aboard. Since that time, we have completed 11 flights and
carried 1207 WWII
Veterans safely to and from their WWII Memorial - a Memorial
built nearly 60 years after the end of the War, when most WWII
Veterans were either deceased to unable to go on their own.
Honor Flight Tennessee Valley began the Honor Flags Program to
recognize
the WWII Veterans who died before they were able to see their
memorial.
It has flown over 250 burial flags to the WWII Memorial for
Ceremonies
honoring the deceased veterans.
Our Final Mission begins on Friday, 10 September 2010, on the
Tarmac at
Signature Aviation, where at 5PM an Honor Flags Ceremony will be
conducted. During this ceremony the families will be brought
forward to
present the burial flags of their deceased WWII Veterans to an
Honor
Flight Honor Guard - for transporting to the WWII Memorial - and
ceremonies the following day (11 September). The Ceremony at
Signature
Aviation is held in front of a P-51 Mustang and a B-25 Mitchell
Bomber
along with other vehicles from the Veterans Memorial Museum. The
Public
is invited to see this once in a lifetime event. Never will you
ever see
the burial flags of 49 deceased WWII Veterans - honored in this
way. It
is truly breathtaking.
On Saturday, 11 September 2010, 103 WWII Veterans will be flown
to
Washington DC, and will finally see the Memorial built in their
honor -
more than 65 years after the end of the War. The Departure
Ceremony is
at 5AM at the Huntsville Airport Main Terminal. It features the
Huntsville Concert Band, vocalist Mitchell Brown, and the
Redstone Color
Guard. Free Coffee and Donuts are served by Krispy Kreme. The
Public is
invited and Parking is FREE. You will never ever see this again.
On Saturday, 11 September 2010, the public is invited to the
Welcome
Home of these WWII Veterans, at 9PM in the Huntsville Airport
Main
Terminal. Bring signs and banners or just come and witness what
you will
never see again. David Carney will get the crowd excited and it
will
truly change your life. Parking is Free, so come on out.
At the conclusion of this, our 12th flight, Honor Flight
Tennessee
Valley will have flown over 1300 WWII Veterans to and from their
Memorial; and carried approximately 300 burial flags of Deceased
WWII
Veterans in our Honor Flags Program. All of this was made
possible
through the generous donations of thousands of people from
across the
region. Funds remaining and those received by Honor Flight after
conclusion of the program will be used to pay for a WWII reunion
and a
permanent exhibit in the Veterans Memorial Museum.
This could not have been possible with out the time and talent
of an
extraordinary Board of Directors and thousands of volunteers
from across
the region and in the Washington DC area. To all, I say THANK
YOU from
the bottom of my heart.
It has been an extraordinarily special experience, and I will
treasure
the memories for as long as I live.
Very Respectfully,
Joe Fitzgerald
President and Founder
Honor Flight Tennessee Valley
