{"id":19989,"date":"2025-10-07T14:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=19989"},"modified":"2025-10-07T14:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:39:10","slug":"last-honor-flight-for-2025-set-for-october-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/19989-last-honor-flight-for-2025-set-for-october-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Honor Flight for 2025 Set for October 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Land of Lincoln Honor Flight ends their 2025 flying season with Mission #76 on October 21.<\/p>\n<p>Mission #76 will serve\u00a093 Vietnam Era Veterans\u00a0from\u00a062 Illinois home towns\u00a0of Atlanta, Beason, Bement, Bloomington, Breese, Buffalo, Bunker Hill, Carlinville, Carlyle, Centralia, Charleston, Chatham, Clay City, Clinton, Cortland, Creve Coeur, Dawson, Decatur, Fairbury, Flora, Forsyth, Granite City, Green Valley, Hammond, Hillsboro, Hillview, Iuka, Jacksonville, LeRoy, Lincoln, Litchfield, Loves Park, Mechanicsburg, Monticello, Morton, New Berlin, Newton, Normal, Oakley, Oakwood, Okawville, Pawnee, Petersburg, Philo, Pontiac, Raymond, Riverton, Rochester, Rushville, Springfield, Tinley Park, Tolono, Tower Hill, Trenton, Troy, Urbana, Vandalia, Warrensburg, Watseka, Westville and Woodson as well as Carthage, Texas and Venice, Florida. The October 21st\u00a0veterans represent all branches of the military.<\/p>\n<p>These Veterans and their Guardians will report October 21 to the Abraham Lincoln Capitol Airport at 4:00 AM to travel to Washington DC on a chartered Sun Country 737 aircraft to visit the World War II, Korean and Vietnam War Memorials, as well as Arlington National Cemetery Tomb of the Unknowns, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Air &amp; Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, the US Marine Corps Memorial and the US Air Force Memorial.\u00a0\u00a0This day of honor is provided at absolutely no cost to our veterans and is completely funded by donations from the general public.<\/p>\n<p>These 93 heroes return to the Springfield airport at 9:30 PM on the 21st.\u00a0\u00a0The general public, friends, family and LLHF alumni veterans are encouraged to pack the airport to welcome home these heroes. Joan Bortolon, LLHF President,\u00a0\u00a0states: \u201cThe welcome home at the airport is the experience our veterans earned and deserve &#8211; but never received. For many of these heroes, this is the first time they will experience a sincere and heartfelt welcome home.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Greeters are encouraged to arrive early and show appreciation for and support of these veterans who sacrificed so much for our country.\u00a0\u00a0Parking is free and volunteers will be in the parking area to assist guests to open spaces.\u00a0\u00a0A shuttle bus is available to take guests directly to the airport terminal door.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are excited to finish the 2025\u00a0 flying season with our October 21st\u00a0flight.\u00a0\u00a0We encourage any World War II, Korean Era or Vietnam Era veteran to apply now; our wait list has never been shorter.\u00a0\u00a0This is your time to be honored.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Bortolon states.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Any seriously impaired or terminally ill WWII, Korean era or Vietnam era veteran will be given flight priority. Veteran and Guardian Applications may be obtained at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.landoflincolnhonorflight.org\/\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.LandofLincolnHonorFlight.org&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759934425290000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3bVqSWGmIsKaEjiLsON6ri\">www.LandofLincolnHonorFlight.org<\/a>\u00a0by clicking on \u201cApplications\u201d tab.\u00a0\u00a0LLHF also offers a \u201cFlightless Honor Flight\u201d program for those otherwise eligible veterans whose physical condition limits their ability to participate on an actual flight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plans in progress for three (3) flights in 2026 (May, September and October).<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Land of Lincoln Honor Flight is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that receives no government funding. Over 6,000 Central Illinois veterans have been served on LLHF\u2019s 75 flights. It is only able to honor veterans due to the generous donations, sponsorships, fundraising events, merchandise sales and supporting efforts of the many local businesses, individuals, and organizations within our service area.\u00a0Land of Lincoln Honor Flight is operated by all volunteers; it has no paid staff, no rental, and no utilities costs.\u00a0\u00a0Its overall administrative cost is approximately 2% so virtually every dollar raised supports flight costs for veterans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Land of Lincoln Honor Flight ends their 2025 flying season with Mission #76 on October 21. Mission #76 will serve\u00a093 Vietnam Era Veterans\u00a0from\u00a062 Illinois home towns\u00a0of Atlanta, Beason, Bement, Bloomington, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Last Honor Flight for 2025 Set for October 21 - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/19989-last-honor-flight-for-2025-set-for-october-21\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Last Honor Flight for 2025 Set for October 21 - 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