(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Dozens of military veterans from Illinois are preparing for a women-only Honor Flight to Washington D.C. next Wednesday.
Women veterans have taken Honor Flight Chicago trips to the nation’s capital since 2008 to see the memorials built in their honor. But this will be the first all-female trip.
There will be 94 veterans on next week’s flight, spokesperson Doug Meffley said.
“We have a couple of World War II veterans. We have eight Korean War veterans, and then the rest are all Vietnam War veterans.”
Honor Flight Chicago had been approached by Operation HerStory to do an all-female trip, he said. When it was announced in February 2020, more than 120 female veterans applied.
The coronavirus pandemic forced the trip to be postponed.
“This is our way of being able to way to put the women in the spotlight so that women around the state and around the country understand that their service is deserving of our thanks,” Meffley said.
Jane Moyers, 73, will be on the flight.
She joined the U.S. Navy just after graduating with a nursing degree from Southern Illinois University in 1970. She was stationed at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, where she worked in the emergency room, she said.
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Among her patients were soldiers brought in from Vietnam.
“I saw quite a few young men, just came off the battle field. They still had their jungle fatigues on and their dog tags, and they were so young and they had multiple wounds,” Moyers recalled.
Moyers lives in far west suburban Sandwich and is active in her VFW post and her church. She said she’s going on the trip to meet other female veterans and maybe strike up some new friendships.
Next week’s Honor Flight is one of four trips the organization is pulling off in a 10-week period.
The last flight of the year will be Oct. 27. As of next Wednesday, Meffley said, Honor Flight Chicago will have taken more than 9,000 veterans to Washington D.C.
When flights resume in 2022, its first one will be Honor Flight Chicago’s 100th trip.
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