(Radio Iowa) – The Sioux Center-based Midwest Honor Flight is taking some 255 veterans to Washington D-C today (Tuesday) to visit armed forces memorials. They’re from northwest Iowa as well as South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Since its launch in 2017, Midwest Honor Flight has flown more than 16-hundred veterans to D-C, though board president and C-E-O Aaron Van Beek says a lot has changed since that first flight seven years ago.

“I could get a plane chartered for about $65,000, and now looking at our pricing going into the fall, it’s about double that, and so the price continues to change,” Van Beek says. “But this is a free opportunity, no expense to the veteran for the flight itself, all the meals, all the busing, all the transportation, all that kind of stuff is covered for them.” Van Beek says with six flights scheduled for this year alone, it’s a big bill, but they’ve got it covered.

“Thankfully, we’ve had great sponsors, great donors, great fundraisers,” he says, “and then of course our guardians and crew that go along and volunteer their time, in addition to making a donation to go on those flights.” The tour includes stops at Arlington National Cemetery to see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Iwo Jima and Air Force Memorials, the Navy Memorial, while the World War Two, Korean War, and Vietnam War Memorials complete the tour. Five of the six flights this year are sponsored, he says, and sponsors provide most of the cost for a flight and receive naming rights.

“We want our veterans to all have the same experience,” Van Beek says, “to be able to see the memorials, to be able to reflect and visit, and to be honored as the heroes that they are.” Van Beek says all veterans from World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam are welcome to apply, but World War Two veterans and veterans with terminal medical diagnoses receive top priority for any flight. He says the waiting list never seems to go below 750, but he doesn’t want that to discourage veterans from applying. Not only does it get a veteran on the list, but Van Beek says it helps with fundraising and obtaining flight sponsors.