Ninety veterans from Upstate South Carolina recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials honoring their service.
Honor Flight Upstate SC, a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization, organized the all-expenses-paid trip for the veterans, which took place on Sept. 16. The trip included 81 Vietnam War veterans, eight Korean War veterans and one of the last remaining World War II veterans in the Upstate.
“They answered the call when our country needed them,” said Paul Howell, director of Honor Flight Upstate SC. “They stepped forward, leaving behind their families, their homes and the lives they knew, because our nation asked them to serve. Now, it is our turn to answer the call – to honor them.”
The 2026 Honor Flight took off from the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport on Wednesday morning. In Washington, the veterans visited their respective memorials and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in memory of their fallen comrades.
Hundreds of family and community members greeted the veterans with signs and American flags when they returned to South Carolina Wednesday evening.
Honor Flight Upstate SC is currently raising funding for next year’s flight for local veterans. For more information, visit honorflightupstatesc.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
