Let It Begin

Starting Thursday (10/8) with Permian Basin’s arrival, we have flight activity on almost every day until October 21st. We have flights on: 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, the BIG day of the 20th, and the 21st. Then four days off!

With that many flights, surely there are one or more that you can squeeze into you calendar to greet our veterans. While the parking lot project is still not finished, folks have been finding spaces to park.

Click HERE to go to the signup page. Remember, the signups close between 48 and 36 hours before the plane lands or buses return.

October – Our busy month

If you want lots of opportunities to greet our honored veterans, this is the month to do it. We have fifteen, yes count them, 15 days with flights arriving and departing. On the 10th, we have three planes arriving and three planes departing. Then on the 20th, we have five (5) planes arriving between 7 and 10:30 am. Then we have four (4) planes departing between 4 and 7 pm. We’ve never had a busy day like that before! Make it a whole day outing with a pizza lunch at Cafe Americana between flights … they do have great pizza! To sign up for any of these flights, click HERE.

Four new flights

If you were looking for more opportunities to greet our honored veterans, four new flights have been added to the schedule. On October 5th, 13th, 26th, and 27th, we will welcome the veterans from the Twin Cities, Eastern Iowa, Never Forgotten, and Old Glory Honor Flights. The signups have been added to our schedule so head to the website to sign up! Click HERE.

1/3 Of The Way Through The Season

When Quad Cities Honor Flight heads back to Moline, IL, we will have completed the first 12 flights of the fall season. Actually, we will have completed 14 flights after handling two flights that were recently redirected to Dulles from Reagan National on very short notice.

October is approaching fast. Our last September flights will be on the 27th (arrival), 28th (departure) and the 30th (arrival and departure). In addition to scattered flights during October, our big days will be the 10th and 20th. The 20th will be a record-breaker for us. We will attempt to handle five (5) arrivals and four (4) departures in a single day without a hiccup. Cross your fingers that they all stay on schedule!

With regard to parking, we hope that the repaving work will be completed by mid-October. What is completed is really nice. We’ll keep you posted on progress. In the meantime, folks have been successful in finding spaces in the lot so don’t be shy about coming to greet our heroes!

Many thanks

In spite of limited parking or having to pay for parking, we had a wonderful sendoff group to say farewell to the Utah and Idaho veterans on Wednesday evening. Thank you to all who made the extra effort to give them a loud and exciting sendoff. There were many veterans and some staff members who commented to me as they boarded their planes of how much they appreciated everyone who shook their hand, cheered for them, and otherwise made the end of their visit so special.

A special thanks goes out to all the Young Men’s Service League gentlemen and parents who made up a large part of the greeters. Your dedication to coming to greet the veterans is truly inspirational and very much appreciated.

Hope to see more folks to greet Greater Peoria on the 8th and Upper Peninsula on the 9th. Perhaps the parking lot will be done by then. Cross your fingers.

Parking for Honor Flights — UPDATE — 12 Sept

The repaving work on the parking lot is continuing nicely. A significant portion of the lot has been completed so there MIGHT be parking spaces available when you come to greet our honored veterans. Mornings and afternoons will still be more crowded with evenings having a greater possibility of finding a spot. Parking placards are now being sent out to those who sign up. Give it a try before heading to a garage or lot.

Of course, please feel free to come by Metro, park in the garages, or the remote lots and take the shuttle in. The veterans still deserve a rousing welcome or farewell so we hope that you will still continue to come to the airport. The airport has been very good to us in the past and we know that the free parking will continue in the future once the repaving is completed and the lot is fully open to us again.

Parking Placards – Housekeeping Item

To get free parking at Dulles airport requires getting a parking placard and the directions to the parking lot.

We’ve learned that some groups have an “internal” signup process so they know how many people from the group will be attending. Unless the group redistributes the instructions and placard to its members, the Honor Flight at Dulles team has no way of knowing who needs the information.

If you are a driver, the best bet for you to get the instructions and placard is to fill out the signup form on our website. Unless you misspell your email address (and that still happens), you will get the information in your email 48 to 36 hours before the plane lands or buses return to Dulles.

The signups are here — heroeswelcomeiad.com