Over the past 13 years, HFC has flown 102 missions to Washington DC. Transporting 6,836 senior Veterans.

HFC flew 924 of America’s senior Veterans in 2019. Safely. With honor and respect.

In the last two years, HFC has traveled on a Sunday (a very special flight on a special day Veterans’ Day 2018), and on a Tuesday, and on a new airline, to a new airport. HFC has even flown two planes on a single day. HFC has grown our pool of experienced Guardians from 80 to 360. We have transported 1,615 of America’s senior Veterans (that’s nearly a quarter of the all-time total Veterans served). HFC is growing and building organizational capacity.

The bottom line is HFC is flying more veterans, more safely, than ever before. There are plenty of Veterans, Guardians, Volunteers, and funding. By every possible metric, HFC is healthier today, stronger today, more vibrant today, than ever before.

YOU did this. Veterans, Guardians, Volunteers, Staff, Sponsors, Donors, Friends, and Families. All of you.

Thank you Veterans. Thank you for your Service. Thank you for your example. Thank you for trusting us to take you on the Honor Flight journey. Thank you for helping us spread the word and convince your brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends, comrades, even strangers in the supermarket to take an Honor Flight. Without your endorsement and support, HFC would wither away. HFC is receiving applications at the rate of 20 per week.

To all the Volunteers who make the Honor Flight experience happen, THANK YOU. Your willingness to take time off work, to come to the airport at oh-dark-thirty, to attack with vengeance the thankless jobs and tasks (like wheelchair maintenance or moving trashcans and chairs) to make the Honor Flight experience one of a kind, THANK YOU.

It wasn’t always like this. Honor Flight operated a few small missions using commercial flights through Columbus in 2005 and 2006.

By 2007, Bill and Bobbi Richards recognized the importance of Honor Flight, and organized, coordinated, and executed Honor Flights over and over. Sometimes by hook and by crook. Buoyed by promises and if-comes. Financed on personal credit cards. The early years were hard. They did have help. They identified, recruited, and organized a team of leaders, passionate patriots, professionals, doers.

By no stretch of the imagination did they always get along. But the mission was strong.
 

This group collectively put their names on documents (incorporation, bylaws, tax forms, registrations, all the important binding things that are needed to establish an organization as a going concern). THIS group committed to form, lead, and run an organization committed to executing and advancing the Honor Flight Columbus mission. In fact, this group became the first hub in the newly formed Honor Flight Network. They assumed this important responsibility of leadership. And they just did it.

It is worth being reminded about one of the most critical elements of HFC. The organization lives and breathes of the standard of service over self. Bill and Bobbi could care less about any discussion of who founded what, when, and why. They do not care. It isn’t why they did any of it. To this day they continue to be devoted entirely to the philosophy of “It’s all about the Vets.”

HFC does not have a Hall of Fame.

Here’s a trick question: If HFC did have a Hall of Fame, who do you think would be in it? That’s right, our Veterans.

HFC is not about me. It is not about President John Shore. It is not about the Board as a whole or any individual member. It is not about Bill or Bobbi, or any of the other Founders individually or as a group. It is not about the first and most experienced volunteer, or the greenest new volunteer. It is not about the Guardian who has flown 50 times, or the one who just took their first flight.

It is all about the Veterans. Period. The real HFC folks don’t just say the words, they live and act them.

The HFC mission is simple and sublime. It is the embodiment of what is good and right, and It endures. It resonates deeply with all our communities, and touches souls. What we do here matters.

The seeds planted by the true Founders of Honor Flight Columbus were viable. The saplings grew into trees and continue to grow. Branching out into new communities and burying roots deep into the cracks of our bedrock. Belayed by a trunk, strong and fast.

This weekend, HFC reclaimed its past. We firmly, deliberately, and clearly planted a flag in truth and by doing so, do something patently out of the ordinary for HFC. Utterly un-Honor Flight. We recognize, honor, share and celebrate a piece of our heritage. Why? Because it is really important, as an organization, to KNOW our heritage and OWN our past. It is ours. We will not permit it to be traded or stolen. Our Founders, much like our Veterans, DESERVE this.

So for a fleeting moment this weekend we broke with our rule and looked in the mirror and fully recognize the rightful bearers of the title ‘Founder’ of Honor Flight Columbus.

These quiet, humble, crusaders, who have never tried to take credit for anything, nor wanted credit for anything, who have always deferred to the organization, with continuous and outrageous cascading acts epitomizing service before self.