Background

Honor Flight, Inc. is a private, not-for-profit organization created solely to honor America’s Veterans for their many sacrifices. 

“We fly our heroes to Washington DC to visit and reflect together at their memorials.”

Top priority is given to senior veterans – WWII survivors – along with veterans of any generation who may be terminally ill. Many of our eldest heroes had already passed away by 2004 when the memorial to their heroic efforts in WWII was completed on the Mall in Washington D.C.

Honor Flight first flew in May 2005 with six small planes flying twelve WWII veterans, departing from Springfield, Ohio.  In 2006, with a rapidly expanding waiting list, the program transitioned to commercial airline carriers to accommodate more veterans.  That same year Honor Flight partnered with Honor Air in Hendersonville, North Carolina and Hero Flight in Provo, Utah to establish the national “Honor Flight Network” which has expanded aggressively to include other cities across the nation. By 2007 official Network hubs had been established in 32 cities, to localize community commitment, operational planning, and fund-raising.

Today there are more than 70 regional hubs.  There are also 7,000 veterans located beyond those hubs on a national registry who wait a full year to be called for their Honor Flight. Based on recent statistics, every day we lose more than more 1,200 WWII veterans across the country.

The mission of Honor Flight is more than timely; it is urgent!

Very importantly, due to generous private donors like you, our honored heroes travel absolutely free.

In June 2008 Rochester became an official hub in the Honor Flight Network.  Since then our founding board and core group of volunteers have been actively engaged in building a viable organization to provide travel opportunity to hundreds, rather than handfuls, of veterans residing in the greater Rochester community.

This can only happen with generous support from Rochester’s private community. Honor Flight accepts no government funding, nor partisan political sponsorships. We do seek the support of individuals and corporate partners, even as we develop broad community fund raising programs with organizations such as VFW and American Legion Posts, fraternal business groups, scouts, churches, synagogues, etc.  Special attention and curriculum guidance is being directed to schools, and those history or social studies classrooms where WWII Veterans are invited in as speakers.   

Close working relationships have developed with local veterans organizations including Rochester’s Veterans Outreach Center.  Now incorporated, Honor Flight Rochester, Inc. is in process of its own 501(c)3 not-for-profit designation.

Our urgent objective is to accommodate local WWII veterans who otherwise would never visit their own memorial. Honor Flight is our way of paying a small tribute to those who gave so much to us – providing them with, quite literally, a safe and memorable experience of a lifetime. 

Thank you for your generous support!

HONORING AMERICA’S VETERANS