By: Jackie Bain
Earlier this year, Jeff and Autumn and I had a conversation about my motivations and passions outside of the law. We all knew that I was professionally passionate about compliance but they didn’t know that I’ve been personally passionate about veterans and their stories since I was in college. I majored in European history and concentrated on modern history including, of course, World War II. The final for one class was to write the story of someone who lived through the war, whether in military service or on the home front. I’ve been hooked on seeking out veterans’ personal stories of the war ever since.
A couple of years ago, a friend went on her first Honor Flight, and its something I’ve wanted to do ever since. Honor Flight’s primary purpose is to honor our veterans by taking them to visit their war memorials in Washington D.C. Honor Flight was founded by Earl Morse, Physician Assistant and Retired Air Force Captain who worked in a Department of Veteran Affairs clinic in Springfield, OH. When the World War II Memorial opened in 2004, Earl asked one of his patients who had served in World War II if he would be visiting his memorial. He was disheartened to learn that the vet couldn’t afford to travel to his memorial. Earl also happened to be an amateur pilot, and arranged for several small planes to transport his patient and his comrades to the memorial erected to honor them. Now, 14 years later, Honor Flight has hubs all over the nation and a waiting list of 35,000 World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans waiting for their chance to fly. The flights are entirely free for veterans.Continue reading