After 14 days of nearly non-stop Honor Flights, the ground crew is taking a well deserved break for a few days. We’ve processed 19 arrivals and departures with 1211 veterans coming to Washington, D.C. to visit their memorials. It has been a lot of work to make everything as smooth as possible for their visits but oh so worth it when you hear about how great their day was! You should be here at Dulles to help make their day great!!

Starting next week, we will have Never Forgotten arriving on Monday, October 26th, followed by Old Glory on Tuesday the 27th, and ending with The Villages on Wednesday the 28th. After that, only two Honor Flights remain for the fall season — November 7th and 17th. If you’ve not been to a greeting during the busy time this month, now is the time to sign up for one or more of the remaining flights. Click HERE to do so.

Dulles Airport Operations has provided an update on the progress of the parking lot repaving operation … subject to change … as usual. Work will continue through November 19th.

We know that trying to find an empty spot can be frustrating when you are coming to greet the arriving or departing veterans. However, remember that these veterans went through so much more than looking for a parking place during their service to our country. Surely you can put up with some inconvenience or out-of-pocket parking expense to show these veterans how much we appreciate their service.

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”.

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/

The spring Honor Flight Season has come to an end.  When the Greater Peoria veterans headed home on Tuesday evening, the Honor Flight Ground Crew breathed a collective sigh of relief.  While we love having all the veterans come to see their memorials, it’s been a busy spring season with a total of 2306 veterans arriving at Dulles.

The fall season will start on 13 August with the veterans from Honor Flight of the Ozarks and end on 11 November with Honor Flight Columbus.  It’s also going to be a busy season with a total of 2356 veterans scheduled to visit with us.  To see the tentative schedule, click HERE.

We would like to thank the multitude of greeters who came to Dulles to greet our heroes.  You made them smile. You made them tear up.  You made them feel proud.  You gave them the welcome home that many never received.  It’s what we are all about and we hope to see you in the fall.

We received an email from one of the board members of the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight team which included the following excerpt from a thank you email from one of the Green Bay flight guardians.  While we frequently have comments based on delayed flights, early flights, bus snafus, achy feet, and miscommunication, THESE WORDS do make greeting the veterans all so worthwhile.

“I wanted to comment on one activity that just shook me to the core. When we got off the plane in D.C., I never expected the greeting the veterans received when walking through the terminal. These people really touched my heart and made you feel so proud to be an American. And think what the vet’s are thinking; these people are all here to honor us. I hope the random adults, the girl scout and boy scout leaders and their troops, the sports teams and their coaches, and parents of all these kids, I hope they all understand the impact they have. This is a Saturday morning of navigating out to a busy airport to pay their respects. I know having kids myself, some of these kids will not fully understand their actions at the time, but they will. What a teachable moment. I let the hand shaking and “thank you for your service” attention focus on the veterans, but I wanted so much to stop and tell each and every one of them, “thank you for your support of these vets”. Again, I don’t want to down play the impact of the same ceremony in the Green Bay airport, it’s just this gathering totally surprised me. I am guessing none of these people knew these veterans at a personal level, but that did not matter. What mattered most was they knew them as men or women to served their country. Again, so proud of our United States.“