Local Veterans Return Home from Eastern Iowa Honor Flight

Nearly a hundred veterans returned home last night from the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight.

The one-day trip to Washington, D.C. gave them a special once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the monuments and memorials built in their honor.

The flight out of Cedar Rapids carried seven Korean War veterans, along with eighty-four from the Vietnam Era and three from the Gulf War and War on Terrorism. More than twenty local veterans were on Tuesday’s Honor Flight, including David Reth, Douglas Cooper, Steven Schatzle and James McGraw, all of Manchester; John Geistkemper of Earlville; Arlan Kickbush and Lowell Moser, both of Colesburg; Merlin Rogers Jr. and John Sauser, both of Monticello; Daniel Elsbernd and Kenneth Sand, both of Walker; Dennis Frantz of Anamosa; Daniel Freiburger of Bernard; and Steven Knepper, Robert Green, Nicholas Holub, David Hummel, Herbert Dolphin, Patrick Sauser, Steve Sauser, Timothy Bruck and Gene Conrad, all of Cascade. 

The veterans received many hugs and thank you’s during a Welcome Home ceremony at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids last night. 

Since the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight began operations in 2009, forty-five flights have transported over four thousand veterans and their guardians to the nation’s capital.

photos courtesy of Eastern Iowa Honor Flight