herE ya go with our
updates
🎖 WHF Update: Busy Season Behind the Scenes!
While our volunteers take some well-deserved time to be with their families, the WHF Staff is still working full-speed behind the scenes. There’s a lot happening as we prepare for an exciting year ahead:
Planning is underway for the Reunion, Virtual Flights, Spring Flight, and Fall Flight
Adding new Committee Chairs and members
Completing end-of-year reports for National
Preparing for the National Summit in February
Finalizing the Flight format and itinerary
…and maybe even a surprise or two 👀
📣 Outreach & Community Engagement
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hitting the road to share the WHF mission with clubs, churches, and Veterans organizations across Southeast Alabama and beyond—from Geneva to Montgomery, Dothan to Birmingham, and everywhere in between.
To expand our outreach even further, we’re looking for additional volunteers who can join us on these visits. Eventually, we hope some will take the lead on presentations so we can cover more groups and reach more Veterans.
💛 How You Can Help
As always, sending our Veterans at no cost to them requires significant fundraising. We welcome:
We also have a couple of volunteer grant writers ready to begin submitting applications—and we would love to bring on additional experienced grant writers to strengthen that effort.
🙏 Thank You
Your continued support keeps this mission alive. Every meeting, every donation, every volunteer hour…it all makes a real difference for the Veterans we serve.
10/07 & 08 MISSION 2 COMPLETED!! - this trip was a little different. We left Daleville at 9:00 on Tuesday morning for the Birmingham airport, flew to DC after lunch, ate at the Amereican Legion, saw a few monuments and Rep. Barry Moore that night. Nighttime viewing was different and beautiful! The next morning, saw Arlington with Changing of the Guard, Sen. Katie Britt gave a quick tour of part of the Capitol and had Q & A with the Veterans. Back on the plane to Birmingham and bus to Daleville. Several surprises on the way home.
09/17/25 - the Birmingham American Legion Post put on a great luncheon for our two World War 2 Veterans who will be going on the October mission as well as some Vietnam Veterans from the Birmingham area. We even got some TV coverage up there as well as picked up some Partnership to spread our Mission!!
Things are moving along for the flight on October 7-8.
A couple of dates to remember are September 26, Friday night at 6 o’clock at JNB in Daleville. We will have Guardians training as well as a Volunteers work session.
On October 4, Saturday at 10 o’clock, we will have our pre-flight luncheon in Ozark at Westview Heights Methodist Church, on Camilla Avenue behind Westgate. It will be a time to meet some of the other passengers that you will be traveling with a days later, as well as check out a few nice patriotic places in Ozark.
08/23/25 - Mission 2 is being worked on. Similar format as Mission 1, but we will be staying in DC on Tuesday overnight and seeing several of the Monuments that night when they are supposed to be awesome looking. More monuments on Wednesday morning with finale of Changing of the Guard at Arlington. Fly back to Birmingham with arrival there around 3:00 and back to Daleville for 7:00 arrival. More details to be posted as they are confirmed. And y'all thought the FIRST Flight was SOMETHING - just wait for #2!!.
06/3-4/25 - OUR INAUGURAL FLIGHT was a HUGE success!! Please go to our Facebook Page for updates with photos.
05/28/25 - UPDATE: FINALLY getting our first Flight going on June 3rd & 4th. Meeting at the Daleville Convention Center on June 3rd at 1:00 PM. We will have 7 veterans going - 2 Korean War Veterans & 5 Vietnam Veterans, with 2 Purple Heart Awardees and 6 of the Guardians and Staff that are going are also Veterans. We will arrive back at 9:00 PM on June 4th, so be there at 8:00 PM for the Homecoming. Give the Veterans a huge Wiregrass Welcome Home like thaty deserve!!
10/24/24 - UPDATE: We have FINALLY gotten the clearance from National HQ to make our first Flight. Due to Winter rapidly approaching and booking things on their end (bus, troops to greet the Flight, Tour Guide, etc. etc.), they suggested to wait until the Spring when it warms up in D.C. We are upgrading our Database, so if you've signed up previously, you'll get an email to update your information. If you HAVEN'T signed up yet (forms at the top of this page), please do so that we can add you to the email updates (if you don't have an email address, we will mail you information).
5/20/24 - UPDATE: Still trying to setup a Virtual Honor Flight in June. Waiting on National to get us a Mentor and ok a flying date. Hopefully the first small flight will be in end of the summer after the worst heat passes. Also, still fundraising for this flight.
3/1/24 - UPDATE: Plans are for a Virtual Honor Flight in mid to late May with a small Charter flight in June. These will serve multiple purposes.
The Virtual will allow Veterans who physically can't travel or just do not want to go to the actual Monuments a way to still be Honored and get a feel for the day. It will allow the Staff to get a better idea of what will be involved on a real flight. It will give the Public a taste of the Specialness of the day and hopefully get more volunteers. It will help possible donors to see what their funding will be going towards. The mini-flight will enable us to do a Dress Rehearsal/Test Run of a larger Flight in the Fall.
Also, new forms are being worked on and will be uploaded soon. On-line form completion option will also be available for Guardians and Volunteers.
10/28/23 - waiting for National to approve a Spring date. They have to coordinate several groups of people on their end after we arrive there. We thought we had an open date in April, but got an email last Friday saying may have to wait until May. Will post again as soon as we know. In the meantime, still several Fundraisers going on. And, still need Guardians and Volunteers. The Ruck March & Family Day on Veterans Day event is growing rapidly. A great team of Volunteers are working 7 days a week to make this first annual event a HUGE sucess! It's already exceeded expectations by two-fold and still going!
9/17/23 - in keeping with trying to let people know what is going on, it looks like we will have to wait until early Spring to make the first flight, and hopefully catch party of the National Cherry Blossom Fesitval. Although we have some people who have been really working on it, overall, the needed funds just haven't materialized. Several Grants have been applied for, but even though they say they WANT to donate, the paperwork process takes awhile and some only do it once a year (two in particular won't donate until mid 2024 which will work for a future flight). I based the Fall "Hope For" date on what was raised in 2009-10 for the local flights, but many of those large donors just haven't this time around. We still have several fundraisers going on currently (Talladega Auctions) and Auburn-Mississippi tickets. We had some successful ones that we just completed (Ruck March & Gun Raffle) which will be tweaked and done again soon! The Montgomery Vietnam Veterans have joined in with us and we will be working together to get this done. Hang tight and I will be updating this website over the next week (yes, I actually have to work my day job as well).
THANK YOU for your patience!!
Go look at our Sister Site: Week of the Wall HERE.
Traveling Vietnam Wall was in the Wiregrass from Sept. 7 - 11, 2023 with the Escort bringing it in on Sept. 6th.
We'll upload photos and stories from it on that site soon!
