WoodmenLife Sponsors Lone Eagle Honor Flight

WoodmenLife believes our Veterans deserve to be celebrated. They deserve respect. And they deserve honor.

The Honor Flight Network is a nonprofit organization that celebrates Veterans by taking them on a special trip to Washington, D.C., where they visit national monuments and reflect on their service.

Gaining Momentum

On June 15, WoodmenLife sponsored a Lone Eagle Honor Flight from three airports: Jackson and Gulfport in Mississippi, and Memphis in Tennessee. The Veterans returned home on June 17 to their Welcome Home Celebrations.

The project kicked off with Mississippi South Regional Director Lisa Davis, who first became interested in participating in a flight after joining a Welcome Home Celebration in North Carolina.

“We started partnering with the Honor Flight Network in late 2023, and learned that there is not a hub in Mississippi,” she explained. “We would have to participate in what is called a Lone Eagle. Typically, a Lone Eagle will fly one or two people from various airports into the D.C. area, but what we did is we put together a plan for who we could invite and how to get the word out.”

With help from every chapter in Mississippi, WoodmenLife raised $56,000 and was able to sponsor an entire flight of 65 Veterans, plus guardians and staff.

In June, WoodmenLife sponsored an Honor Flight of 65 Veterans. The group traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit national monuments and reflect on their service.

Memories to Last a Lifetime

There were several moments that made the Honor Flight and D.C. visit memorable for Davis, including:

• Touring special monuments honoring Veterans
• Delivering 171 handwritten cards from the Mississippi Jurisdictional Convention during Mail Call
• Listening to all of the Veterans’ stories
• Seeing the Veterans finally being properly welcomed home, some of them for the first time

“On our flight, we actually had a World War II Veteran, who is 99 years old,” Davis said. “That was so special because there are very few World War II Veterans still left.”

A Proper Welcome Home

Upon returning home, Davis said more than 100 people at both the Jackson and Gulfport airports cheered during the Welcome Home Celebrations, giving the Veterans a proper greeting they might not have received the first time.

WoodmenLife provided flags and signs, as well as special minted challenge coins with the WoodmenLife logo on it for each Veteran.

A local company also provided cartons of eggs to the returning Veterans. “For this company, they knew eggs were thrown at some Veterans when they came home for the first time, and this time we were going to hand them to them,” Davis explained.

WoodmenLife member Harold Palmer and his grandson Jon Thomas Potts took part in the Honor Flight.

Supporting Veterans

Davis learned that before the June 15 flight, a full group of Honor Flight Veterans had never flown out of Mississippi. Since then, the Honor Flight Network has seen a surge of requests for flights from the state.

With patriotism and supporting Veterans being so important to WoodmenLife, Davis said this project was imperative to give back.

“What this meant to some of the Veterans is beyond what words can even convey,” she said. “To see these Veterans being recognized in such a way was just phenomenal.

“When we act on behalf of others, amazing things happen — and that’s what I really think happened here.”

Written by: Cheyenne Alexis, Communications Strategist

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