freedom honor flight

After participating in honor flight, local vet hopes other vets take the opportunity

Nov 12, 2025

Gene Schumann of Lake City took a bus tour of Washington, D.C., while he was stationed nearby at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. It was a Saturday during the spring of 1957, and he remembers the cherry blossoms were in bloom. They drove by the memorials completed by that time but never...

A flight to remember

Nov 5, 2025

As an aircraft mechanic in the Army during the Vietnam War, Jim McIlrath developed a love for aviation that has stayed with him ever since. After enlisting and training, he was stationed in the United States, then Korea for 11 months. “In Korea I became a tech inspector,” he said. “I inspected...

Lake City veteran Bob Holly visits capital on Freedom Honor Flight

May 21, 2025

Freedom Honor Flight 32 took to the skies May 3 with Lake City veteran Robert (Bob) Holly aboard. We got to visit memorials built in veterans’ honor, like the Vietnam memorial, WW2 memorial and Iwo Jima. We even got to meet General Patton! We were able to locate a veteran on the Vietnam wall from...

Kehren brothers fly together on Freedom Honor Flight

Nov 6, 2024

Larry Kehren and Orie Kehren, brothers from Lake City, both served in the Vietnam War. On Saturday, Sept. 21, they were honored for their service by taking a Freedom Honor Flight from La Crosse, Wis., to Washington, D.C., to see the memorials erected there to honor members of the U.S. armed...

Vietnam-era Lake City vet Ellen Austin visits Washington aboard a Freedom Honor Flight

May 22, 2024

On May 4, Ellen Austin was one of 99 veterans who travelled to Washington, D.C., aboard Freedom Honor Flight’s 30th trip since the organization was founded in 2008, according to Steve Swan of Lake City, a longtime supporter of the organization. The single-day itinerary includes a welcome in...

Local veterans take ‘Honor Flight’

Dec 7, 2022

Two Lake City veterans traveled to Washington D.C. Sept. 10 on the 27th Freedom Honor Flight. The flights allow veterans to see the memorials constructed in their honor at the nation’s capitol at no cost. Lake City residents Cliff Reynolds and Don Lamb were among the 98 veterans taking the flight...

Swan fundraiser collects $1865  for Freedom Honor Flights

Jul 28, 2021

Steve Swan of Swan Jewelers recently presented the Freedom Honor Flight program with a $1865 donation on behalf of the customers of Swan Jewelers who supported the recent fundraising effort. The Freedom Honor Flight program flies veterans out to Washington D.C. on a one day trip to see the war...

Swan Jewelers raising money for Freedom Honor Flights

May 20, 2021

Swan Jewelers is once again spearheading a fundraiser on behalf of the Freedom Honor Flight programs. Freedom Honor Flights fly out of La Crosse, Wis., and give war veterans an opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials constructed in their honor. People who donate $10...

Pin proceeds support Freedom Honor Flight

Jul 25, 2019

Steve Swan (right) presents Jim Wittenberg of the Freedom Honor Flight, La Crosse, with the monies raised during Swan Jeweler’s “Raise the Flag” campaign. For several years, the store has sold $10 flag pins for a limited time and donated the proceeds to Freedom Honor Flight. Now the Lake City...

For vet, flight helps heal wounds suffered at war's end

Jul 3, 2019

Jerry Abidin of Lake City took a whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C., on May 18 on a Freedom Honor Flight out of La Crosse, Wis. The Vietnam War veteran served 21 years between the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve. In the capital he saw not only the Vietnam War memorial, but the Tomb of the Unknown...