NEWS
Highlights from our 120th flight
The 2025 season – our 17th! – debuted on Wednesday, April 9, with 113 senior war heroes aboard a Southwest 737-800 bound for Washington, D.C. Included in that number were one WWII veteran and 12 Korean War veterans in addition to 100 Vietnam War veterans.
Jay Tunney: Son of a Champ
For Jonathan “Jay” Tunney’s eighth birthday, he went to see his favorite performer, Roy Rogers, at Madison Square Garden, which in and of itself wasn’t that unusual for a kid in the early 1940s. What was unusual was that during the show, Roy stopped to point out Jay’s dad in the audience, and the crowd started cheering.
Ron Parker: Shake and bake
When Ronald “Ron” Parker was drafted into the Army he was assigned to the infantry. He said he loved being an infantryman, even when he served in Vietnam. So much so that when he became an officer with other options available, he asked to be assigned to the infantry.
PODCAST: HONOR. THANK. INSPIRE.
Honor. Thank. Inspire. is a new Podcast from Honor Flight Chicago where we sit down with our senior war heroes and hear — in their own words — their experiences in service to our nation. Hosted by long-time ABC 7 Chicago reporter and HFC board member Paul Meincke, Honor. Thank. Inspire. captures living history via first-person accounts of war from the actual men and women who served and sacrificed.
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
HONORING OUR HEROES
HFC veterans by service
Honor Flight Chicago 2022 Day of Honor Documentary
THANKING OUR MEDICAL GUARDIANS
With the COVID-19 pandemic grounding flights in 2020, Honor Flight Chicago put an increased focus on our Medical Guardians, many of whom were on the front lines of treating coronavirus patients. Several took a few minutes out of their busy days to talk about COVID-19, their work with Honor Flight Chicago, and the strangeness of being called heroes.
