Honor Flight Northeast Indiana
Honor Flight Northeast Indiana offers a special salute to our veterans who pass away prior to going on their flight with us. A veteran did not have to be on our waiting list to be eligible. If your veteran loved one passed away before they could sign up with us, we would be honored to salute them with this program.
Honor Flight Northeast Indiana offers families of veterans that have passed the opportunity to take their memorial flag to Washington D.C. with us on a future flight and present it at the appropriate memorial of the veteran. When we return that evening, we will present the flag back to the family during our welcome home ceremony. We will document the day with a photo of the flag at the memorial it is displayed at and send that photo to the family after the trip. We may also post that photo on our social media sites to honor that veteran. We will only be able to take a maximum of three (3) flags during a flight. We currently offer four (4) flights each year or a total of 12 flags per year.
Family members do not travel with the flag. It will be given to an Honor Flight representative that will escort it and others during the trip.
A “Memorial Flag” is a simpler and easier way to say burial flag or the flag presented to the family, most likely, from the funeral home or service provider handling the arrangements for the deceased veteran. It may also have been provided by the military if your loved one was killed in conflict or other military assignment.
Any honorably discharged Veteran that has not been on an Honor Flight that has passed away. It doesn’t matter if they were signed up and on the waiting list or had never signed up for a flight with us at all. It also can be from any era including current conflicts.
If the memorial for the Veteran that we are honoring isn’t on our trip or does not exist in Washington D.C. we will take their flag to Arlington National Cemetery and honor it there.
First, (and only when we call you to schedule) we will need the flag. It should be kept folded and removed from any hard display cases. You can place it in a simple plastic bag for protection while you transfer it to us. We will place it in an appropriate clear plastic “flag display bag” upon receipt.
Secondly, we would like a photo of the Veteran – preferably in military uniform – if available. We would also need their name, rank, branch of service and dates of service. The family or representative would need to be available to come to the Fort Wayne International Airport the night of our flight to have the flag presented back to you. PLEASE DO NOT SEND US ANYTHING IN ADVANCE. We will contact you once your flag has been identified to go on an upcoming trip and make arrangements for you at that time to bring us the flag and picture.
