CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT KNAUF
Wednesday is a big day for 85 Upper Peninsula veterans.
They will spend the day Wednesday in Washington D-C, as part of the U.P. Honor Flight program.
U.P. Honor Flight President Scott Knauf says there are three World War Two veterans among the group, along with 69 Vietnam War veterans and 13 from the Korean War era.
“We have a procession that leaves the Quality Inn at 5 a.m.,” Knauf said. “We leave that motel, go down Lincoln Road to the airport. So for the early birds who are up and about that early in the morning, come on out to that stretch of roadway and wave to the veterans.”
Thanks to donations from across the Upper Peninsula, they are able to visit the monuments in the nation’s capitol at no cost to them, or to their guardians, who also go on the trip.
This is the 17th mission of the U.P. Honor Flight.
The veterans will take off at 6:30 Wednesday morning from the Delta County Airport, and they’ll be back on U.P. soil Wednesday night.
The community is invited to the welcome home ceremony when the veterans return to Escanaba.
“There’s all kinds of things going on, with the band there, waiting for the plane to land,” Knauf said. “Welcome home these veterans. Give them the welcome that they did not get 40, 50, 60 years ago.”
The hangar will open at 7:00 p.m. and the veterans should be back at around 8:30.
