Great River Honor Flight Announces 79th Mission

Final Flight of 2025

The Great River Honor Flight Board of Directors announced that the final of five planned flights for 2025, #79, is scheduled for Thursday, October 16th out of John Wood Community College in Quincy. A total of 31 veterans will take part on this trip. Of them, 29 served during the Vietnam era. 1 SERVED IN BOTH Vietnam and Gulf War and the remaining 1 served before or after Vietnam. They represent Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Women’s Army Corps and Army Reserves. A full listing of the veterans on this trip follows this News Release.



This will be the 79th mission overall for local veterans since the program started serving the Tri State region in 2010. Since then, 2,506 local veterans who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and between those conflicts have previously participated in this program. The 31 veterans on this flight served in several roles among them Infantry, Security, Transportation, Intelligence, Mechanic, among others. Their itinerary will follow the schedule that has been so successful over the past 16 years. It includes a 2:15AM departure for a bus ride to Lambert Field in St. Louis where they will board their flight to Baltimore and then on to DC where they will visit the Vietnam Wall, Korea Memorial, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Air Force Memorial, and see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery and then head to the Navy Memorial for tour and dinner. The veterans will then head to Reagan National Airport for their return flight back to St. Louis. A charter bus will bring them back to the JWCC Basketball Arena for a rousing homecoming. The expected arrival time back in Quincy will be around 10:30PM.

Great River Honor Flight was chartered on Veterans Day 2009 with its first flight scheduled on April 13, 2010. Our goal remains to honor the total number of local veterans who served our country with a FREE trip to Washington DC.

To date Great River Honor Flight, the Tri-States’ hub of the Honor Flight program has flown 2,506 local Veterans to Washington D.C. since it was established in 2009. This trip will increase that total to 2,537. Great River Honor Flight, a Missouri Nonprofit Corporation established in October of 2009, was created solely to honor America’s veterans that live in our area for all they have sacrificed by providing, free of charge, transportation to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices.

For additional information, contact Carlos Fernandez at csfernandez1951@gmail.com or

Great River Honor Flight

PO Box 3723

Quincy, Illinois 62305

THE VETERANS ATTENDING

THE 79TH MISSION: