A GROUP OF 86 veterans on a U.P. Honor Flight salute while visiting the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. on Sept. 18, 2018. (Escanaba Daily Press photo)

ESCANABA — Upper Peninsula Honor Flight will make a visit to Washington, D.C. today. Mission XVIII will be the first flight in the past three years due to COVID-19 pandemic postponements. The last flight, Mission XVII, was in September of 2019.

Because of pandemic setbacks, Upper Peninsula Honor Flight will now be hosting three flights per year, one more than its usual bi-annual schedule.

“We are going to be doing three flights this year, so we will be flying (today), then again Sept. 7, and Sept. 28,” Scott Knauf, president of the Upper Peninsula Honor Flight, said. “Because we have over 400 people on our wait list, and we take 85 veterans per flight, we have quite a few people on our backlog.”

Upper Peninsula Honor Flight operates through Honor Flight Network, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to honor American veterans who have served and sacrificed for their country. Honor Flights are completely free for the veteran, with meals, airfare, and other commodities being provided at no cost.

“Most of these veterans have never been to D.C., so the Honor Flight is all about the veterans,” Knauf said. “It is a one day trip, but it affects them in a way that I still do not understand and I have been on 12 missions.”

Veterans were to fly out of Delta County Airport at 6:30 a.m. Eastern time today.

“This will be our first mission with no World War II veterans on it. We had two scheduled to go, one was 101 and the other was 97, but both canceled in the last few weeks,” Knauf said. “We do have three Korean veterans on this flight and the rest are Vietnam veterans.”

Pete Haepers and Gary Johnson, both of Norway, are among the 85 veterans making the trip.

In addition, 83 guardians will be accompanying the vets. Guardians can vary from a relative to a local volunteer. Fifteen support crew members, including a doctor, three nurses, and two videographers, will go along as well.

These veterans will be treated to a jam-packed day full of touring the D.C. city scene and various memorial sites. Chartering four buses, veterans will be viewing the Air Force Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, and the changing of the guard ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in the morning. Once crossing over the Potomac and into D.C., they will get to explore the Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean memorials by foot-travel before settling in for a lunch-break at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials.

“It is important to get these veterans out to D.C. because it is not a family vacation, but a trip of therapy,” Knauf said. “When they go with other veterans, they start talking like they have never talked to their family members before, telling stories that family members have never heard.”

Once finishing lunch, the veterans will tour through downtown D.C. During this time, veterans will see the Navy Memorial, Disabled Veterans Memorial, and the new Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial that was constructed in 2020.

In concluding their day-trip, Honor Flighters are scheduled to fly out of Reagan National Airport and land back home in the Delta County Airport at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. The public is encouraged to welcome the heroes home at the airport, with hangar doors opening at 7 p.m.

Community engagement regarding the Honor Flight, according to Knauf, is incredible.

“It just brings the community together,” Knauf said. “It is just unbelievable how the community supports our mission and they back us 100 percent.”

Of the 17 missions that have concluded, the Upper Michigan Honor Flight program has taken 1,316 veterans spanning every county in the Upper Peninsula. That number will continue to rise dramatically in the following years.

“Honor Flight is all about bringing these veterans out to honor them, so that they can see the memorials that were built in their honor,” Knauf said. “(Veterans) compare Honor Flight to getting married and having kids. It is amazing.”