On April 25, Honor Flight Syracuse Mission 005 launched from the Syracuse Airport with 81 veterans from World War II and the Korean War. The average age of our veterans on this trip was 91, and for the first time, we brought TWO married veteran couples with us.

In addition to visiting the World War II Memorial, where we all gathered for a group photo, we stopped at the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials. We drove by the Iwo Jima Monument and Navy Memorial, with a quick stop at the Air Force Memorial. We ran into a very special guest at the Changing of the Guards at Arlington National Cemetery – many of our veterans had the opportunity to shake hands with General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff! General Dempsey shared a few words of appreciation with our veterans, who were very moved to have met him.

Our Welcome Home Celebration was perhaps the largest we have had yet, so many thanks to all the family and friends who came out to cheer us home! Special guests included Congressman John Katko; New York State Senator John DeFrancisco; Dave and Linda Oja representing the Chase Corporate Challenge; Vice Admiral (ret) Robert Murrett; Major General (ret) and Mrs. Robert Kasulke; Colonel Mike Smith, 174^th ATKW; and William Burdick, Veterans Day Dinner Committee member.

Please visit YouTube to view and download our Mission 005 video, and check out these links from the Watertown Daily Times and WKTV in Utica. We are grateful to have had representatives from these media outlets travel with us to capture our veterans’ stories.

Mark your calendars now! Mission 006 will be on Saturday, October 3 and we look forward to seeing you at the Welcome Home Celebration that evening!

Honor Flight Syracuse relies on the generous contributions from the community to continue our mission to honor our veterans. If you would like to support Honor Flight Syracuse, visit HonorFlightSyracuse.org.