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.

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!

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.

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.

The schedule and signups for all of our fall flights has been posted and is ready for our fabulous greeters to start planning for and signing up to attend these greetings. Click HERE to go to the signups.

Keep in mind that arrival/departure times can potentially change during our “summer break”.

The Honor Flight of the Ozarks was our last flight of the spring season. When they headed back to Springfield, MO this evening, we closed out our busiest season ever — 41 flights. For each and every arrival and departure, we always had greeters there to thank our honored veterans for their service and to welcome them to town to see their memorials. Whether it was a couple dozen people or 250, you made an impression of the veterans. Each and every one of you who came to Dulles in the heat, the cold, and the rain certainly brought a smile to their faces and made them feel welcome. We’ve heard numerous comments of how much they enjoyed and appreciated seeing each greeter as well as our musicians.

We can’t make any of this happen without the tremendous and generous support of the management of Dulles Airport along with all their employees who made the public and behind-the-scenes efforts to make the transition through the terminal from plane to buses as easy as possible. Of course, without their support, parking for all of us would not be free!

We are now on our summer break. But don’t worry — the fall schedule will be released on 8 July so you can start planning to come greet starting on 20 August for our 37 flights in the fall.

The last Honor Flight of the spring season will be on Tuesday, 7 July. The veterans with Honor Flight of the Ozarks will arrive at 8:00 am to head downtown to visit their memorials for the day. They will come back to Dulles at 4:30 pm. Why not round out your America’s 250th 4th of July celebrations by coming to Dulles to greet the arrival or departure of our honored heroes? It’s the perfect way to end the spring season before beginning your summer activities.

Due to all the 4th of July activities, the signup will close early on July 1st to allow our staff to enjoy the busy holiday weekend with their families. Take this opportunity to signup now by clicking HERE so you won’t miss out on getting the instructions and FREE parking placard.

If you choose to park on your own instead of FOR FREE (following our instructions), be aware that the parking rates have increased.

The maximum charge in the terminal lot in front is now $40.

The maximum rate in Garages 1 & 2 is now $25.

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

In order to assist you in planning your visits to Dulles Airport to greet our veterans, we’ve posted the schedule as we know it today. We know that there will be changes throughout the season so check back periodically for those changes. Just follow the link below to get started.

https://heroeswelcomeiad.com/2026-spring-signups/