Stars & Stripes Honor Flight expands flight eligibility guidelines

Thanks for being here. I'm John Mercure. I'm on the board of directors for Stars and Stripes Honor Flight. Since the Honor Flight inception, the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight inception, we've flown veterans to their memorials in Washington, D.C., free of charge. That's the mission, to celebrate our veterans in Washington, D.C. A couple quick thank yous, then we'll get on to the main stuff. We're grateful and proud of the support we receive from our Southeast Wisconsin community, including many of our leaders. I want to acknowledge some of them today. Members of the County Board of Supervisors, members of the Milwaukee Common Council, thank you so much for always supporting us. A special thank you to the airport staff, who's always been incredible, incredible to work with. Milwaukee Airport Director and longtime Honor Flight Supporter, Brian Dranzik, thank you. Harold Mester, who's here from the airport. Taj Mahal, who's here from the airport. Thank you very much for what you do for us. A special guy is Jim McLean, Colonel Jim McLean. He's the executive director of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. Colonel, thank you so much for being here with us. All right, you guys came here for an announcement. So let's get to it. I'm going to give you some housekeeping stuff near the end, and all these people you're going to hear from will be here at the end to answer your questions one-on-one if you'd rather do it that way. All right, let me bring up our leader, the president of the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight Board, Steve Visatko. Steve. Thank you, John. In 2008, we began honoring World War II veterans. Over the years, we extended that welcome to veterans of the Korean War and Vietnam War. With each group. We heard stories we might not have heard otherwise and we have the chance to say something that we never get old to us. Welcome home and thank you for serving our country. This past weekend we completed our 90th mission flying 110 veterans to Washington D.C. and back home. That brings the total number of veterans that we've flown to date to 11,665. Today we're extending that same welcome to another group of veterans. I am pleased to announce that we're extending this program to include veterans who served in the Cold War and Desert Shield and Desert Storm era with service dates through July 31st, 1991. To those veterans, thank you for your service. For many Cold War veterans, service meant being ready day after day for something everyone hoped would never happen. It meant standing watch, training, and doing work that kept others safe. Much of that work took place far from home and out of the public view. That makes it all the more important to recognize it today. For those who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, we honor the many ways you answered the call. Some deployed to the Gulf. Others kept aircraft flying, moved supplies, provided medical care, and carried out the work that made the mission possible. Each of you has a story about what it took to do your job. and what it meant to serve alongside the people you counted on. We also want to thank the families who stood beside you. They kept things going at home, worked through long stretches of uncertainty, and made sacrifices of their own. We will continue to prioritize those who served World War II, Korea and Vietnam, as well as veterans whose health circumstances make it especially important to fly very soon. The newly eligible veterans will be scheduled after those groups in the order their applications come in. With Veterans Day coming up this week, we are opening applications up starting today. Veterans and their families can find application information on our Stars and Stripes Honor Flight website. The timing for flights for this next year will depend on the priority and the number of applications we receive. We expect that it will be about a year before the group begins flying as we continue serving veterans from the earlier eras. I hope each of us will take a moment to ask any veteran about their service and give them the time to tell about it. Ask where they served, what their job was, and who they remember most. Sometimes a simple question is all it takes to open a door to a story they've never had a chance to share. Please join me in giving these veterans a warm welcome to the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight family. All right, we want you to hear from some of our veterans, some that have flown with us, some that will in the future. So I'm going to ask you guys to come up to the podium and briefly just tell us a little bit about your service. A couple sentences, and then they may want to talk to you afterwards a little bit more, okay? So help me welcome to the podium as we pass the baton some of our veterans. Korean-era Air Force veteran David Sergis, Vietnam War Navy veteran Steve Ngo. Ngao, I'm sorry, Vietnam War Combat Marine Alvin Flowers, Desert Storm Vets Christy Schultz, and Peter Ritz. Okay, I'm going to ask you guys to each come up here. We're going to start with you, David, Stu, Alvin, say a couple things about your service, then Christy and Peter the same, and then we're going to have a chance for you guys to take a picture as they pass the boarding pass from one to the other. Okay, David, you start. We'll go right in this order. Good morning. My name is David Serges, an Air Force veteran. I was in the service from 1953 to 1957. I went on an honor flight in 1913, or 2013, I'm sorry. Morning. My name is Stu Nagao, U.S. Navy, 1967 to 1987, Vietnam War. I made my honor flight in May of 2018. Okay, good morning. I want to keep it brief like everybody else did. My name is Alvin Flowers. I'm a Vietnam combat veteran, served with special operations in Vietnam, and I went on my honor flight in 2019. So thank you, guys. Hello, my name is Christy Schultz. I served 1990 to 1994, a Gulf War veteran. I was a parachute rigger with the 82nd Airborne Division. Good morning, everybody. My name is Peter Ritz. I served in the United States Marine Corps from 1989 to 1994. I participated in Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Storm as an avionics technician on CH-53 helicopters. Thanks for being here. Okay, so now we're going to pass the boarding pass from our veterans who have flown with us. Hold on just a second. You can hold it. Go ahead. But don't pass it yet. So these guys can get ready. So we pass the baton, or in this case the boarding pass, from generations that have flown with us to who we will fly. All right, David, Stu, and Alvin, you guys can go make yourself comfortable. Thank you very much. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Appreciate you, Alvin. All right, we do have a couple people that are going to speak a little more than just introduction. So I want to introduce you to them. The guy in charge, the guy who helped design the brains behind this brand new memorial in Washington is going to speak to you in just a minute here. But before that happens, before we bring him up and I introduce him to you, I want you to hear from Christy Schultz. Christy Schultz, as you heard, is a desert veteran. I want to bring her up here, and Christy, can you talk a little bit about why this means so much to you, us flying, you and your colleagues? Hi. Hi. When I was first told I was eligible to fly on my honor flight, I was conflicted. I asked myself, was my service good enough? Was it worth the gratitude of my community and my country? These are hard questions to answer, so I reached out to my military brothers and sisters and realized that this conflict that I feel was the same feeling so many veterans that flown before me may have experienced with their own flight day. On one side of the conflict coin, there's the knowledge that I simply signed up and I did a thing. It's hard to accept that honor and thanks because I did that thing together with a family that was curated for me through camaraderie, dedication, and teamwork. It is incredibly hard to accept thanks and celebrate my service knowing that other warriors returned home scarred or not at all. But on the other side of that conflict coin is joy, humility, and the realization that I did this thing with my warrior brothers and sisters. It is noble and it deserves to be celebrated. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So to all my brothers and sisters in arms who have flown before me Thank you, Mr. Chair. and the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight Organization, Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I humbly accept this boarding pass and anxiously await my flight day. Thank you. Thank you, Christy. Thanks. Thanks, Peter. So Honor Flight had a flight on this past Saturday, and it was our last flight of the Honor Flight season. We flew 110 veterans to Washington, D.C. to celebrate their service and to see their memorials. And it was amazing. And for the first time, we were able to see the National Desert. Shield and Desert Storm Memorial, because it just opened literally a couple of weeks ago. It's stunning, it's powerful, it's incredible, and it's on the mall, and that's hard to get done. It's a tribute to the 700,000 Americans who served in the 1990-91 Gulf War. And more than three decades later, the National Memorial ensures that their service and sacrifice will be recognized in our nation's capital. And so we fly these veterans there to make sure that their service is recognized. Kent Shively is the Deputy Director of Planning and Design for the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial. He is a veteran from that era, he is a visionary, and he's a guy who gets stuff done, and it wasn't easy. Kent, will you please come up and tell us a little bit about the memorial and about why these flights for these veterans are so important? Thank you, John. Good morning, and thank you for being here. I apologize, my voice is coming and going this morning. Good morning. John and Steve have both given me a little more credit than what is due. You know, I am the Deputy Director of Planning and Design for the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association, but I have had the honor of working alongside some of the best architects, artists, designers, sculptors. In their fields, this has been a long process and it never would have gotten accomplished without just an incredible collaborative team. The memorial itself is a result of 16 years of collaboration to honor the service and sacrifice of Desert Shield and Desert Storm veterans. The site at the intersection of 23rd and Constitution is an important location in Washington, D.C. We refer to it as being at the intersection of ceremony and diplomacy. Ceremony because it's the site of the National Desert Storm Victory Parade that took place in June of 1991. The returning troops marched down Constitution Avenue. Diplomacy because 23rd Street, just up the hill from the memorial, is where the State Department is located. And without the State Department's work to... To build the coalition that took part in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the victory would have never happened. The location also has very strong connections to other symbolic elements nearby. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, not only for the connection between those who served in both conflicts, but also the healing and closure. brought about to Vietnam veterans and their families and the renewed bond of trust between the citizens of the United States and the military that resulted from the success and professionalism of the veterans of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The memorial is considered an oasis within the National Mall landscape. The interior space is created and enclosed by two dune formations that are reminiscent of the Barchan dunes in Kuwait and Iraq, which are formed by sand and and swirling desert winds. The storm wall is dynamic. Its composition conveys the power and speed of the operation. The bas-relief emerges from the dune texture to represent the conflict from the build-up to the engagement in combat and following to the liberation of Kuwait. It shows details and emotions of the carved figures in the heat of combat. Integrated along the way, one of the commemorative elements are the two stainless steel raptors that represent the United States and Kuwait together. The bald eagle representing the United States and its leadership during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the falcon, which is the national bird of the nation of Kuwait. They fly together, they fly along together with the bald eagle returning home and the falcon of Kuwait rising with the freedom that they have gained again. The inscription wall offers a very distinct contrast with the storm wall. The inscription wall offers a very distinct contrast from the storm wall, a more quiet and serene composition focused around two intertwined wreaths, representing operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The wall reminds visitors of the service and the sacrifice of the men and women of this all-volunteer force thousands of miles from home. At the center of the memorial is what's known as the Unity Shield, representing the coalition countries that supported the liberation of Kuwait. The central space is surrounded by plantings and contains the fountain, which is meant to evoke a moment of oasis and a place of quiet rest and reflection. The courage and service of the veterans of Desert Shield and Desert Storm inspired this memorial. They changed the course of history and set the standard for how the United States conducts itself around the world. One of my favorite quotes was a little too long to make it on onto the memorial. But it was President George Herbert Walker Bush in his address to the State of the Union in January of 1991 in which he said, Let future nations understand both the burdens and the blessings of freedom. Let them say we stood where duty required us to stand. To me, that is what this memorial represents. And one of the slogans that we have adopted, As a, as an association and it's appeared on some of our merchandise is never shall land forget. And I, you know, I was, I was honored to go on, on the honor flight on Saturday and working with, uh, or traveling alongside the veterans of Stars and Stripes on a flight. It became very apparent to me that you all embrace that, that never shall land forget. So thank you very much. Can you explain why? Absolutely. So many of my fellow veterans had expressed that they were beginning to feel like our conflict had been forgotten and they had been forgotten as well. And Honor Flight getting them out to Washington, D.C. to see their memorial reminds them that they are not forgotten and that as long as there is a Washington, D.C., there will be a Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial honoring their service and their sacrifice. Thank you, Kent. We appreciate it. So the quickest way that you can help get our World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and desert veterans is to go to our website, starsandstripeshonorflight.org. We get asked all the time in the community, how can I help? I want to be part. I see the cool things at the airport when you fly home. The best way you can help us is to get veterans to fly with us. And you do that through starsandstripeshonorflight.org. We want to honor their legacy of service and sacrifice by getting them to Washington, D.C. A couple more quick things. Part of our honor flight tradition is that we hand out commemorative bracelets on each flight day. Every flight day, we hand out one of these bracelets, and it's different. So we have one of these for each of you today. In the back, Mary, under the big American flag, has the bracelets. Please stop and get a bracelet. Take it as a commemoration of what we want to do with the new memorial and the new group of veterans. Reiterate what Steve said. We will continue to prioritize. World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, we want to make sure we fly all those veterans. Vietnam veterans, there's a lot of you out there. Please sign up. Please come with us. And then we will fold into that mix Desert Storm and Desert Shield veterans. Our veterans are going to stick around. So Kent is going to stick around. Christy will be here. The veterans from the prior conflicts will be here. VA Executive Director Colonel McLean, who's a desert veteran, is going to be here if you'd like to talk to him. And the Stars and Stripes staff will be here as well. We'll all stick around if you have questions, if you need anything, if you want to do interviews. Thank you to everybody who came up here. We really appreciate it. Kent, thanks for coming all the way out here. And thank you for showing up and helping support our mission.