Veterans aboard Honor Flight 53 are welcomed back to Illinois. | IL Rep Dan Swanson/Facebook
Veterans aboard Honor Flight 53 are welcomed back to Illinois. | IL Rep Dan Swanson/Facebook
Illinois State Rep. Dan Swanson (R-Alpha) was happy to be among those gathered at the Quad City International Airport on May 24 to welcome local veterans home from a special trip to the nation's capital.
Swanson highlighted those returning from an honor flight in a May 24 Facebook post.
"'Welcome Home' Vietnam veterans Honor Flight 53," Swanson wrote in the Facebook post. "Thank you to everyone who made this flight possible for our heroes."
Two events took place at the Quad City International Airport that day, a calendar on the Honor Flight of the Quad Cities website said. The round-trip flight itself was scheduled for 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., while the welcoming ceremony and return celebration took place from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Hy-Vee sponsored the flight so that veterans and their guardians could fly to Washington, D.C., a recent KWQC report said. It was the 12th flight sponsored by the company, and this one made history for having the most number of women on board an Hy-Vee-sponsored flight. This time eight women made the trip.
The first Honor Flight of the year took place in April, transporting more than 90 veterans to Washington, D.C. for the day, a report from WQAD said. It was the 52nd trip for Honor Flight of the Quad Cities.
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