Freedom Honor Flight dates announced

More area Korean vets will go this year

The Freedom Honor Flight program has announced dates for its 2016 La Crosse area trips.

Those dates are May 7 and Sept. 17, when local veterans will take day trips to Washington D.C.

Nearly 90 area veterans will be on the May 7 flight. 

It will be the 17th such flight since the program to honor vets in the region began in 2008.

Until recently, most of the vets taking the honor flights from La Crosse had served in World War II, but very few vets from the area are available to travel. Very few WWII veterans are still around and you only get to go on the flight once.

There’s a waiting list of over 300 people to get on these flights and only about 100 go per flight.

Pat Stephens is president of the La Crosse Honor Flight committee, and he says about 19,000 veterans around the U.S. took those trips last year – 9,946 WWII vets, 8,382 Korean War vets and 2,423 Vietnam vets, he said – to visit war memorials.

The May flight is dedicated to Sparta American Legion Post 100, which contributed $26,000 for the trip.  

“It’s not just Sparta,” Bill Bohn, co-chair of the Sparta Freedom Flight committee said. “It’s all the surrounding communities.”

The vast majority of veterans on the next flight will be from the Korean War, with just seven World War II vets available to go this time.

“We’ve come down and watch them leave and watch them come back,” Bohn said. “We’re very proud to be able to say we have raised appr $161,000 over the nine years to send these veterans.”