WWII Vets Front & Center Please

I really feel a little hesitant to bark orders at our greatest generation but I honestly don’t have time to lolly-gag. We have a fabulous window of opportunity to honor our WWII Veterans and like many windows I don’t want any of you, who are able, to miss it.

There is a program called Honor Flights which provides an all expense paid trip to take WWII veterans to see the memorial that was built in their honor. Just the fact that this program exists is tremendous and there have been numerous veterans that have made the trip to Washington DC whether they could afford it or not and our window of opportunity for our veterans in Southwest Oklahoma was made possible by a gentleman from Jackson County who stepped up and paid for an entire flight. His only stipulation was that he wanted WWII veterans from Southwest Oklahoma to have first shot at this particular opportunity. Prior to this, the flights have always gone out from Oklahoma City or Tulsa. This special flight will leave from Lawton on May 4, 2012. We want to fill that plane. We’ve had several inquiries as we have posted on facebook, made calls, met with civic clubs etc. and the first step is to go to the website which is www.oklahomahonorflights.org or call this phone number, 405-259-9000. Be sure to indicate when you call or access the website that you, or your loved one, are a Southwest Oklahoma veteran and you are applying for the special Lawton flight. It’s important to remember that the veteran will make this flight at no charge and each veteran will be accompanied by a guardian. We also need guardians. The guardians will pay their own way. The fee for being a guardian is $500. The charge for the guardians helps defray the cost to the veterans. There will also be medical personal on the flight. There will be wheelchairs available even for those who can walk so that they can expedite their movement once they get to DC. This trip will not be an overnight trip. This trip leaves around 5 a.m. and the veterans will be back home late the same night. It’s a strenuous day but it allows the cost to be kept low so that more of our heroes can make the trip to see their memorial. We not only need veterans to sign up as well as guardians willing to make the trip but we also need HS bands, student groups, letter writers, and just plain warm bodies to make the send off ceremony one that we can be proud of.

The send off will occur the evening of May 3rd at the Great Plains Coliseum where we will honor this greatest generation of heroes and pay respect as they prepare to make what for many of them will be the trip of a lifetime. We know that many of you will be hesitant to send dad or granddad on this type of journey. We want to assure you that they will be very well attended as well as cared for. I also want to stress again that we have an awesome window of opportunity to honor these veterans from our corner of the state who may not be able to make a trip to Oklahoma City or Tulsa. We feel that all of our WWII vets deserve this honor regardless of their financial where with all. I know we have a large number of heroes out there and we need your help in identifying those folks. There may be some who need help with various parts of the application and so on and I know that all of us, especially in our corner of the state, with its rich military history will want to help make this trip a reality for these people who greatly deserve it. So, once again the website is www.oklahomahonorflights.org and the phone number is 405-259-9000. If you need further information feel free to contact my office and we will help with the flow of information so we can make sure as many of our friends and neighbors can experience this great trip.

When you view the website you will see a waiting list of 450 veterans. It is very important to note that Southwest Oklahoma veterans will have priority on the Lawton flight due to the generosity of our donor. At the time of this writing there were about 50 Southwest Oklahoma vets who have signed up. We have room for approximately 50 more. Let’s fill this flight!

To contact me at the Capitol, you can call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. ~Cynthia Ozick