In May 2004, the National World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The veterans of this war represent a generation whose youngest member is now 78 years old. With a man's average life expectancy at 74.4, it becomes increasingly difficult for World War II veterans to visit the memorial. And time is not on our side.

Honor Flight was initially conceived in 2004 by Earl Morse, a Physician Assistant and Retired Air Force Captain, to honor veterans he has taken care of for the past 27 years. Its sole purpose was to fly veterans to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials dedicated to honor their sacrifices. Today, Honor Flight has flown more than 800 WWII veterans to the memorial.

Honor Flight Tennessee Valley has been organized under the national organization, for the purpose of flying veterans from the Tennessee Valley area to and from the memorials absolutely free. Once they arrive in the D.C. area, a charter bus will transport the veterans to the memorials. After 60 years of waiting, they will see what was built to honor them. Past Honor Flight veterans have visited, looked, and taken photographs, but mostly reminisced and remembered fallen comrades. All trips are flown out and back in the same day.

View of the World War II Memorial from the Washington Monument

The inaugural trip for Honor Flight Tennessee Valley was held 4 April 2007 from the Huntsville-Decatur International Airport.

Honor Flight is a volunteer organization, operated out of the goodness of peoples' hearts. The volunteers are ordinary citizens dedicated to honoring our nations' veterans. Groups in the community may donate or raise money to help us. These are people like you, who want to help in whatever way they can. If you would like to help, e-mail us at honorflight@htimes.com and tell us what you can do.

If you would like to make a financial donation or sponsor a veteran, please mail the donation to:

Honor Flight Tennessee Valley
c/o Huntsville Times
P.O. Box 1487 WS
Huntsville AL 35807

Donations are used to provide transportation, meals, T-shirt, disposable cameras, fuel, and other necessities. We need your support to make this happen now, because in another 5-10 years, these veterans could be gone.