Earl Morse

"Innovations by Veterans for Veterans"

Wednesday, 8/22/07

Morse: Thank you all very much, thank you. The cameraman is going to
have his work cut out for him today because I have a hard time standing
in one place behind the podium. This is incredible. When I was in the VA
I went to a couple of conferences, nothing like this, this is awesome. I
feel like a rock star kind of, this is weird. But thank you all so much
for getting up early and coming out here to hear about our programs. The
nice thing about talking to a bunch of people that work with the VA is
we have so much in common. Basically it boils down to we've been given
this privilege to care for America's veterans, and it has been such an
honor and privilege for me to have been in the Air Force for 21 years
and then to work in the VA for 8 years. Twenty-nine years of caring for
veterans, and I'm a better man because of that. Being able to help folks
has been so rewarding. But out of that sense of caring, this program
began. The topic "Innovations by Veterans for Veterans" seems extremely
fitting. Becky wanted to make sure that people are aware of my
background and where I come from. I am the son of an Air Force father
and my mother is British. They had met each other in England, and I was
born in Swinden, England, and six months after we left, we come to the
United States, and I've been traveling around ever since. My father
served 20 years in the Air Force, I served 21, so as a child growing up
and moving all over the country, and then following in my father's
footsteps, the military was pretty much all I knew. During my 21 years
in the Air Force, 15 of those years was spent on the enlisted side, and
of those 15 years, 10 of those years were on flying status, I was a
flight medic. I loved it, I loved flying, as a child growing up if we
were flying that meant we were PCSing to another base. And as a child
growing up, lived all over. Grew up part of my time in Germany, and one
of the interesting things, I'm just kind of curious, how many military
brats do we have in here? Quite a few. One of the interesting things
that happened, when we were in Germany we were stationed at Hof Army air
base, and one of the things that they did at Hof, once you got there was
they offered these tours. Everybody would get on a bus and one of the
tour sites was to the Czechoslovakian border, at that time
Chezchoslovakia, which is in the Communist side. As a young kid growing
up, I'm about 10 years old, and this is in the early 70's. Hippies were
everywhere, and I wanted a pair of bell bottom pants too, and I wore a
tie-dyed shirt. Here we loaded on this bus and we went over to this
location where you look down on a city over in Chezchoslovakia. It was
more like a town in Czechoslovakia. And one of the things that struck me
was when I looked at how we were dressed, and of course it was a very
colorful time in the early 70's, and you looked through the barb wire
across the mine field and through the other barb wire fence, and you saw
that town, you saw how everybody wore grey. The city was grey, they were
wearing black, and they gave you binoculars if you wanted to look
across. Even at that young age of 10 I realized then that you have the
haves and you have the have nots. And because of growing up as a
military dependent, I had an early appreciation for what it meant to be
free. As we toured along that fence there were some pictures of people
who desperately tried to escape fro Czechoslovakia and didn't quite make
it across the mine field, or got caught on the barb wire. So growing up
as a military brat had a lot of privileges in my opinion. I got to see
what life was like in other countries. The other thing that happened to
me, once I was on flying status and became an air medical evacuation
technician, I then went to Brooks Air Force Base, and I was an
instructor there. How many nurses do we have in here? Quite a few. Any
former flight nurses? Teaching down there at that program, I was an
instructor on C130's, C141's, and C9's. Once I graduated from the air
medical evacuation program, I flew air vac there for a while, taught at
the school, then I went overseas into Turkey, and in Turkey I was the
NCOIC, non-commissioned officer in charge of urgent air medical
evacuation. Basically what that meant was if we had somebody with a bad
head injury, if we had a premature infant, to launch the C9 from
Ramstein out to Incirlik air base, that took about six hours. So in
Turkey we always had aircraft available, and they were called opportune
aircraft. It might be a C130, it might be a C5, big cargo aircraft, that
we would run out there quickly and convert into a medical transport
aircraft. So utilizing opportune aircraft to get patients from point A
to point B, I did that quite a bit. A little bit more about my
background, I then was selected for the Air Force's PA training program,
became a physician assistant, got my commission at the Air Force Academy
in 1992. First assignment was at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix,
Arizona, then I went to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Wright
Patterson Air Force Base has the largest aero club in the country, the
largest. They have about 300 members, and in talking with my dad, I
said, "Dad, have you ever been to the Vietnam Wall?" And he had not. So
I said, "How about if we rent a plane and we go ahead and we'll take off
from Wright Pat, we'll land at Andrews Air Force Base, you and I can
head down to the Mall, you can see the Vietnam memorial, and we can put
some World War II veterans in the seats behind us on the aircraft." It
cost about \$600 to \$1200 to rent that aircraft for the day. Dad agreed
to split the rental fee with me, and I knew personally from working with
so many World War II veterans that a lot of them were not going to see
their memorial, so I had an idea in mind about how to make this happen.
He agreed, and we started drawing up some plans. Working at the
Springfield VA clinic, as the film pointed out, such an opportunity to
know my patients on an individual basis, and having worked out there for
six years at that time, I knew personally that the main reason why a lot
of those patients were out there was because financially they were
completely wiped out. Their live savings were gone, their houses were
gone, they were living in apartments and a lot of them had to decide
well do we eat this month or do we take our medicines? And that drove
them to the veterans service office and then eventually drove them into
our offices, where we would fix them up with their medications, and I
did CMP exams, and I fixed them up with certain profiles and
disabilities and ratings. What a tremendous privilege it was for me to
work for the VA and to help so many people. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Between 21 years in the Air Force, 8 years working for the VA, 29 years
of caring for veterans, and I've had the honor and privilege of caring
for so many of America's veterans, but personally speaking, those
veterans that I found to be the most appreciative, stoic, humble, and
patriotic were the World War II veterans. In my opinion, still today are
the World War II veterans. They are certainly my favorites. Another
thing that I discovered, not until I got out of the VA and started
working in private practice, was that the CPRS system was phenomenal. I
was a template bandit, I mean every single template that I could
conceive of, I had it all set up. I've noticed that I was asking the
same exact questions of every single hypertensive patient that came in,
every single diabetic patient that came in, well let's just go ahead and
create a template so I can click right through that, have them answer a
couple of quick questions, and then have that eye contact, that
one-one-one which was really the reason why I became a physician
assistant in the first place. It afforded me that opportunity. When I
got out of VA, because the VA didn't have any part-time positions
available for me, and I started working with some of the other systems,
man, did I find out that the VA system was top-notch, it gave me a lot
of one-on-one time with the patients, I wasn't tied to the computer
nearly as much. A lot of the other systems out there, there I was, back
on the keyboard typing everything out. Do you all utilize those
templates quite a bit? Awesome. Click, click, click, ask a couple
questions, then I can spend some one-on-one time with them. The very
first veteran I asked was Mr. Leonard Loy. Now you got to understand,
you can't just blurt out that hey, you want to go see the memorial,
we'll help you out? I knew that I had the aircraft, my dad wanted to go
ahead and rent that with me, we were talking tiny planes, Pipers and
Cessnas. So I had to get that lined up. I also had to go talk with the
aero club manager, because you cannot land on another Air Force base
without the approval of the aero club manager. So I went to Ron Smith
and I said, "Ron, this is what I would like to do. Will I get your
permission to land at Andrews Air Force base?" And Ron said, "Not only
can you do this, this is an incredible idea. I want you to bring it up
at the aero club safety meeting." They have about 300 pilots, at any
given aero club safety meeting 150 of the pilots are there. I went up
there and I said this is what I'd like to do. I'm going to start renting
aircraft, I'm going to split the rental fee with my dad, to fly World
War II veterans out to see the memorial. If there is anybody here that
would like to help me do this, two things to keep in mind. Number one,
the World War II veteran does not pay a penny for this flight. You're
going to have to split the aircraft rental fee with your co-pilot.
Number two, you can't fly them out to Washington, D.C., drop them off
there and go hang out with your friends. You got to stick with them all
day long, get them back to the aircraft and home safely to their
families. That night I had eleven pilots who had never met any of my
patients who stepped forward and said they'd like to help out. So there
we were, we were all set with a lot of pilots and a lot of aircraft, and
Honor Flight was born. I approached Mr. Leonard Loy, who you see there
and I had to set up the question. I said, "Mr. Loy, have you been to
your memorial yet?" And he goes no, mom's been kind of sick and the kids
don't have the time, and we don't have the money." I said, "Have you
ever flown in a small plane, I mean a tiny plane?" He goes, "Oh yeah, my
Uncle Phil, he had a Piper Cub and we went up, I loved it, absolutely
loved it." I said, "Alright. Do you have any plans to go see your
memorial?" He goes, "No, we're never going to get to see that." So I
said, "Alright, my dad and I are going to rent an aircraft and you don't
have to pay a penny. We'll put you in the back of the plane, we'll fly
out to Andrews, we'll pay for everything, we'll fly you back. Are you up
for this?" And I was waiting for him to say yes or no, let me discuss it
with my wife. I wasn't ready for him to break down. He started crying,
and a funny thing happened because when he started crying my allergies
flared up right away. I wrote down his name and his contact information
and told him I'd be getting back with him when we ironed out the
details. I opened the door and I said, "You take care, we'll see you in
three months or so, and I'll be giving you a call." Well the nurses in
the C box, Sheila, she saw Mr. Loy coming out and he's dabbing his eyes,
she saw that my allergies had flared up pretty bad, and she goes, "What
is going on in there?" I said, "Well, we're going to fly Mr. Loy out to
Washington, D.C. so he can see his memorial before he passes away." She
goes, "That is awesome! Is there another seat available on the plane?" I
said yeah. She said, "Well can I ask another World War II veteran?" I
said, "Okay, sure." About two or three days go by, I'm visiting with
another patient, there's a knock on the door, I get up and opened the
door and there's Sheila. And her allergies are flared up really bad. She
had asked another World War II veteran, the same exact question that I
asked Mr. Loy, and it was the same exact response. This means more to
these World War II veterans than I ever imagined that it would.
Certainly these two veterans, because it was only later than I learned
that Mr. Loy was in the Navy, and his job in the Navy, how many of you
have seen that movie "Saving Private Ryan"? Quite a few, good. Well in
that movie you see those landing craft that go up on the beach. His job,
he was on a troop ship, the USS Lyons, and his job was to operate the
big cranes that would lift these landing craft over the side, they'd put
it in the water, and then the troops would scurry down those cargo nets
and they would go ahead and invade that island. He told me that a lot of
times those landing craft came back and they were shot up pretty bad. In
some cases there was quite a bit of blood in those landing craft, and
that was his job, was to get those landing craft out, get them back on
the ship and then make repairs as need be. He participated in two
invasions in Europe, and then once it became obvious that the tide had
changed in Europe and that we were winning the war, him and his ship
sailed through the Panama Canal and then went over to the Pacific side,
participated in two invasions in the Pacific. It was a world war. Thank
God they won. Another thing about Mr. Loy is that shortly after the war
the USS Lyons was sold as scrap metal, and they were having reunions. So
he took it upon himself to build a scale model of the USS Lyons because
that was all that was left of that ship. In front of the USS Lyons is
the little landing craft there, he built that to scale as well. So when
they were having their reunions he was the hit, he was bringing the
ship, and that's all the guys had. They'd hang around the ship and
they'd tell stories of the ship. They don't have reunions anymore.
There's not enough of them to have reunions anymore. So when I asked him
if he would like to go see his memorial, I had no idea about his desire
and his commitment to his friends that served on that ship, and his
desire to see the memorial, but he was the very first patient that I
asked if he wanted to go. Ron Smith is the guy far over there to your
left, and Mr. Loy is in the blue jacket. He's standing next to me. The
other two characters, all patients of mine, Mr. Long is in the center
there, he served in the Army Air Corps. His job over in England was to
drive the trucks that were hauling the bombs from one Army Air Corps
base to another Army Air Corps base. Then the person on the far right,
Mr. Taylor. What a great guy, he's a former prisoner of war, he was
captured at the Battle of the Bulge. The first thing that the Germans
did during the Battle of the Bulge when they took them prisoner is they
took away their boots and their hats and gloves and coats. The Battle of
the Bulge took place during one of the coldest winters on record in
Germany, and the reason why the Germans took his boots and hat and
gloves and coat is because they didn't have it, it was the last dying
grasp of the German fighting machine to try to win the war, to try to
salvage the war, so those were some pretty desperate Germans. They
didn't do it to torture these veterans, but sure enough, poor Mr.
Taylor's feet were frostbitten and to this day he suffers from
frostbite. Then to complicate things, about twelve years ago he had a
stroke. So when he walks, he walks with a shuffle, he drags his foot.
And it was interesting because once momentum started building about this
program, I put together a bunch of applications and circulated them
around. Mr. Taylor, he's a member of the former POW organization in
Springfield, and if you look at question number 5 it says, "Would you
have a problem walking the length of a football field?" That's not a
disqualifying question, I just wanted to know what the general health
status was, because when we started forming into teams and who's going
with whom, I didn't want ten people who can't walk the length of a
football field all on one team. But Mr. Taylor, he's at that POW
meeting, he sees that application sitting there and he took it home with
him. He tried to walk the length of a football field and he couldn't do
it. His driveway was 50 yards, so he walked 50 yards out and 50 yards
back. He could not do that. About three weeks after he'd seen that
application, I'm seeing him on a follow-up visit and he walked in and
goes, "Doc, I heard about your program, and I've got your application.
Every morning I wake up I try to walk that 100 yards, I can't do it yet,
but every morning I'm going to get up and I'm going to walk further and
further and I'm going to turn in my application." I said, "Mr. Taylor,
turn your application in now. That's not disqualifying, we'll find some
way to get you on the plane." Man, that kind of made his day to hear
that, and lo and behold, the reason for this photograph was because we
wanted to see if we could get these veterans on board the aircraft,
because when you're talking small Pipers and Cessnas, there's some
climbing that's involved getting the folks into the aircraft. It was a
very windy day, I didn't know this, but we get Mr. Taylor onboard the
aircraft, and the only way to do that is you had to get some boxes set
up and I got my shoulder up underneath his butt, and we kind of got him
into the plane, and then we walked off to see if the other two gentlemen
could get into the plane. I did not know this until about six months
later when I was reading an article where they interviewed Mr. Taylor.
When he got into that aircraft he cried because he knew he was going to
be able to see his memorial. Like I knew before, this means so much more
to these folks than I ever, ever dreamed. A couple of facts. In May of
2004, the 29^th^ of May, that's when the World War II memorial was
dedicated to honor the greatest generation. But across this country,
2007 is the year according to VA statistics, and also Arlington National
Cemetery, that the death rate of veterans is going to peak out, at
1,200. Not every month, not every week, but every day. So time is not on
our side. I said man, that is a lot of World War II veterans passing
away. I did a little research on that, and the average life expectancy
for any American, regardless of race, any American male, is 74.4 years
old. But the youngest World War II veteran is over 79 years old. That
doesn't include the 15 year olds who lied about their age, but generally
speaking every World War II veteran that you come across statistically
should have been dead five years ago. And of course, skyrocketing
healthcare costs have wiped out the life savings of most World War II
veterans that I came in contact with, and even if they did have the
finances, the physical strength, the endurance, the general aptitude to
travel alone outside the local area, let alone to Washington, D.C., it
eludes them. In fact, it would elude most people. Another thing that
helped foster our program, a lot of the VFW, DAV, American Legion posts,
when they were dedicating the World War II memorial they had tour
busses. They said we're going to go ahead and we'll drive you out to
Washington, D.C. to see your memorial, and they were dismayed at how
many people didn't take advantage of that. They didn't take advantage of
it because it was a three day bus ride. I don't want to ride on a bus
for three days, and a lot of World War II veterans have 80 year old
spouses that they were not going to leave for three days. So we had that
going against us. A stark fact is that in about another five to ten
years, World War II veterans will be gone. And the overwhelming majority
of World War II veterans, they waited 60 years for a memorial most of
them will not live to see. How many Vietnam veterans do we have in here?
A couple. Alright, if you applied that same 60 year timeframe to the
Vietnam memorial, the Vietnam memorial would not be built until the year
2035. These guys, for whatever reason, waited 60 years for a memorial,
now that they have it, it is breathtaking, and no way to get out there.
So we had to do something, we had to try to help them out. So we created
Honor Flight, and our purpose is to fly American's veterans out to
Washington, D.C. to visit those memorials that have been dedicated to
honor their service and sacrifice, of not only themselves, but also
their friends. Number one priority, World War II veterans and any
terminally ill Korean or Vietnam veteran who has never been to their
memorial, we will have them on the next plane that's going out. After
we've gone through the World War II veterans and those who are
terminally ill, then we're going to focus our attention on the Korean
veterans and the Vietnam veterans, and all others. How we started, six
little airplanes, we flew twelve veterans. That was very personally
rewarding for me. That was the first picture we took there, after our
first flight, there's twelve veterans in there and also the pilots that
accompanied them. Very easy to get everybody into the photograph. Now
it's not that easy to get people into the photograph. Trying to round
all 40, 50, 60 World War II vets up is rather challenging there at the
World War II memorial because they get stopped. I don't know if you can
see this, but in the top right hand corner is a mother that wants her
daughter to have a conversation with a World War II veteran, and you see
that time and time again with these World War II veterans, kids will
come up and want their autographs. So getting them rounded up is kind of
difficult. I equate that to kind of herding cats, because you've got
everybody, get together, get together, and then the guys who are on the
motorized scooters, they have like their big time truck drivers, and
that start beeping that thing up, they're backing up, trying to get it
just right. They have a blast. I'm yelling at them get together, all you
ugly veterans stay out of the picture, okay, the rest of you can stay in
the picture. I have a wonderful time doing that group shot. But one
thing you don't see in that picture is for all those veterans that are
there, behind me when I took that picture there's twice that many
tourists that happened to be there on the same day when the busload of
World War II veterans pull up. And from all over that memorial they come
over, they see what's going on, and I remember I was taking a picture
and there was this young lady, 22 or 23 years old, she was pushing her
way up to the front and she took a look at all those veterans sitting
there, she goes wow, that's the real thing. Yeah. No Hollywood actors.
The real thing. The reason why there's a memorial. And what they're
wearing. On the front you have the typical Honor Flight logo, but on the
back it says, "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read
this in English, thank a veteran." It's a cool shirt, but let me tell
you, what's embarrassing is when I'm standing beside a World War Ii
veteran, and we're talking and we're looking at the Iwo Jima memorial,
and I'm talking to them and I notice out of the corner of my eye there's
a family coming up behind that veteran, they're reading that, and
they're looking at that, and I know what's coming next. They'll come up,
they'll tap that World War II veteran on the shoulder, and they'll say,
"Excuse me, sir. Would you mind if I took a picture of the back of your
shirt?" But you hear that time and time again. These shirts, we brought
a bunch of them and we will have them with us today. When we sell the
shirt it costs us \$15, of that \$15 that feeds two World War II
veterans at the memorial. We fix them up with boxed lunches. So we
brought that with us. On our flight we went from the tiny planes to the
big planes, the corporate aircraft. And the reason why we did that,
there's a couple of reasons, we had so many veterans that were in
wheelchairs that could not get into the tiny aircraft, and things that
keep you up at night is when a veteran calls up and says I understand
you're flying World War II veterans to the memorial, I would give
anything to see that, and you ask more questions and you find out that
they're in a wheelchair. And I said, "Sir, I am sorry. We don't have any
way to get you out there." That was during our first year. Toward the
end of the year we started using larger aircraft. The other reason why
we use large, commercial aircraft is it's a shorter flight. We were 2 ½,
3 hours flying over the Appalachian mountains in the little Pipers and
the Cessnas, not a real comfortable ride. And if I could get personal
with you for a moment, I've got about a two hour bladder, and the World
War II veterans that I fly have an even shorter bladder than that, so
three hours in a Cessna or Piper was rather challenging, put it that
way. But now it's a one hour flight out of Ohio, it's longer in other
areas. Another limitation, a reason why we changed what we're doing, is
because if you flew out for three hours, you land, you get on the bus,
you tour around for about, the only memorial, because of the time
constraint, that we were able to see was the World War II memorial. But
as I'm seeing patients, the technician is coming and saying there's a
patient out here that wants to talk to you, and I'm like okay, and
there's a World War II veteran sitting there. And he says, "I understand
you're flying folks out to see the World War II memorial and I've signed
up for one of your flights." I said, "Okay, that's great." He says,
"I've got a question for you. Is there any way to see the Vietnam
memorial?" I said, "Sir, it's three hours out and three hours back, we
don't have the time built into that." He goes, "Well, could I go down to
see the Vietnam memorial?" I said, "That's 600 yards sir." He said,
"Could somebody get me down there?" I said, "Sir, we can't do it. We're
doing everything we can to get you to the World War II memorial, and
I've got to get back in and see patients, please, you've got your
application turned in, we'll get you fixed up." And he goes, "Well, I
wanted to go see the Vietnam memorial (crying), my son's name is on the
wall." And when he said that I was like oh, just stab me in the heart.
We changed things then. Every time we go out there we see the World War
II memorial, the Korean memorial, the Vietnam memorial, we go see the
Iwo Jima memorial because so many of these World War II veterans have
family members that followed in their footsteps. Some made it home, some
didn't make it home. So it's important, very important that we take in
all those memorials. Generally speaking we're out and back the same day,
the same day. The little asterisk there is because if you're flying in
west of the Mississippi, usually that's an overnight stay, but for the
majority of the United States we're out and back the same day. We are
now, thank Lord, we're a 501C3, we're a nonprofit organization, any
donations that come into our organizations can be written off on the
taxes. The guardians that go with us, they pay their own expenses out of
Ohio, it's \$250. The further east you travel it's less, the further
west you travel it would be more than that. And we fly on a first come
first served basis. Out of Dayton we're flying every month, but this
program has kind of snowballed in that we're not in 14 states, so not
everybody can fly on that same date so we divided it up. Some folks will
fly on Wednesdays, some folks will fly on Saturdays, and here's a key,
over 2,735 World War II veterans have been flown out and back safely.
And I want to emphasize the "and back". We're all healthcare providers
linked to healthcare, and I got to share with you, our nightmare
scenario is not that a World War II veteran would die during one of
these trips, pass away there at the World War II memorial. In fact,
we've flown some people who have advanced heart disease and they're on
oxygen. I say, "Sir, this is kind of risky. We need you to sign this
waiver because there's a chance that you might die during this trip."
And he goes, "Well, if I die I feel sorry for the mortician because he's
going to have a hard time getting that smile off my face." Here's a
nightmare scenario. A World War II veteran falls down and breaks a hip.
They fracture a hip, they're not coming home to their family. Because of
that, there's no way that I can get credit for all of this, because we
begin every one of our staff meetings with prayer, we begin every one of
our flights with prayer, and what's comforting for me to know is that
these World War II veterans that we're flying, they're no stranger to
prayer. They had prayer before their battles. And for whatever reason
they're still alive to this day. Alive long enough to go and see their
memorial, and 2,735 have made it home safely, we haven't had anybody
admitted to the hospital there in Washington, D.C., and I thank the Lord
for that. We have over 3,000 now on our national waiting list that
desperately want to see their memorial. Another thing that keeps us up
at night is that over 65 of them have passed away while waiting for us
to get them out to their memorial. Quite often the way we find out about
it is when we call up the family, we say alright, Mrs. Smith, we need to
talk to Mr. Smith because we have a seat available for him on an
aircraft, and Mrs. Smith says he passed away about three months ago or
two months ago. We say we are really sorry to hear about that, and they
are so gracious, they said it meant so much for him just to know that
there were people out there that were willing to get him out to his
memorial, and that meant a lot to him before he passed away. We need
your help. We definitely need your help. We're in fourteen states, we
want to get bigger. We want to spread all over the country, and I'm
hoping that you would help us out. Now the cost to a World War II
veteran for the round trip airfare, the deluxe motor coach to the
airport, back to the airport, meals, we fix them up with box lunches at
the memorial and also dinner at the Old Country Buffet, we fix them up
with wheelchairs, motorized scooters and oxygen. The motorized scooters
are donated by The Scooter Store. They truckload about 30 or 40
motorized scooters to the World War II memorial for us, and those
veterans get in those motorized scooters and it doesn't take them long
to figure out where that boost button is, and they are gone. Oxygen and
wheelchairs are donated by Rotec, which is the parent company for a lot
of medical equipment folks, and they do a wonderful thing. We fix them
up with an Honor Flight t-shirt. We give them a disposable camera if
they did not bring a camera, and of course it's absolutely free. In our
opinion, given what they've done, their financial status and how long
that they've waited, they've earned this, they deserve this. I got to
tell you a funny story about free. I had this World War II veteran who
comes into the clinic and I said, "You're a World War II veteran, aren't
you?" This guy, he said he was from Ohio, but if he was from Ohio he was
from southern Ohio. I said, "Do you have any plans to go see your
memorial?" He said, "No doctor, I ain't got no way to get there." I
said, "I tell you what, how about if we rent a plane, we fly you out to
Washington D.C. and you'll see the memorial, get you fed and stuff like
that and fly you back, would you be interested in that?" He said, "Oh no
doc, I'm scared, I'm scared to fly in them planes, they give me the
heebie jeebies doc, I just can't do it." And I said, "Alright, if you
ever change your mind let me know." A week goes by, there's a phone call
and he goes, "Hey doc, I read in the newspaper here that you're flying
veterans for free to that memorial. You didn't tell me it was free, doc.
When I read it was for free, that free took the scared right out of me."
I said okay, he said, "But doc, if I go, I want to go with my friend. My
buddy, we was all across Europe together, and we get on that plane, if
that plane's going down I want to be holding onto his hand." I said,
"Sure, you can go with your buddies." It's important to us, it's
important to the veterans, that friends fly with friends. We've had
groups as large as 17 people in one retirement community get together,
we flew them all together, they all came home together, and guess what
they talk about at that retirement community? Yeah. In Ohio, Comfort
Keepers, they are an organization that will come in and for a fee will
take care of the person, but for us they will provide care to the spouse
the entire day for free. This is what I need in Honor Flight. Need your
prayers, please. As we organize, develop, and grow, we continually ask
for the Lord's blessing of wisdom, safe travel, good health for our
veterans and our volunteers and our flight crews that help us out. We
need that. Also, donations to help cover our operational costs. We get
no corporate or government sponsorship. We're still beating that drum
trying to see if somebody will help us out, we have some isolated
pockets of folks that are interested, but as an organization no
corporate sponsorship. And you might be interested where that money
goes, these are some costs for you. Approximately how much for some of
the fees associated with what we do. And I need more charitable caring
people to help organize Honor Flights in your part of the country. I
know that from previous experience, I don't think people have a greater
heart than the people that work in the VA, for the veterans. We also
need folks to help join us on our flights, because we have, as I
mentioned before, we have guardians that go with the veterans, and
there's a lot of veteran caring experience in this room that we sure
could use. More guardians and volunteers for a couple of programs that
we have. If there is not an Honor Flight branch in your area of the
country, we're still going to go ahead and try to fly them, and those
are called Lone Eagles. We also have a TLC program. TLC's are veterans
who it's made known to us that they're dying, they have cancer and
they're going to be fading fast. Their family usually makes us aware of
that, they go out on the next flight. TLC does not stand for tender
loving care, they all get tender loving care. It stands for their last
chance. And we need funding for these multiple programs, because out of
Ohio we have certain donations that we collect, but when we get a
request for somebody to fly out of Montana, someone from Iowa, someone
from California, we have to pay for that, and we certainly could use
some help. And to solicit donations, if somebody wanted to sponsor an
Honor Flight, that's \$10,000. A couple of things that we tell them
would be website recognition, they can use this logo for up to two
years. We also tell them that two members from the organization can go
and we give them a lot of recognition, \$10,000 will support a flight
from a certain town. We also tell them that if you're going to sponsor
the flight then you can handle the launch operations and the recovery
operations, the send off and the welcoming home, you get to handle that,
give them pamphlets if you like, handle the recovery or the welcoming
home ceremony, and they kind of like that. We will generously accept
donations from anybody except for World War II veterans. And we tell
them this again and again and again, you cannot make a donation to our
organization, but my mom, who's sitting here in the front row, bless her
heart, she's always getting these checks, and we send them back.