An organizational meeting for an Honor Flight for veterans from our region will be held next week in Knoxville, in an effort to recognize these vets for the time they spent in service to their country.

Southern Iowa Honor Flights will meet on Thursday, March 14th at 6:00 p.m. at the VFW in Knoxville; the organization will need to establish itself as a 501(c) charity, and begin working out the details of arranging such a flight.

It would be a one-day trip from Des Moines to Washington, D.C. They would tour the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War memorials as well as Arlington National Cemetery.

Former Knoxville Mayor and Air Force veteran Don Zoutte tells KNIA/KRLS News they’ll be looking for as many veterans from those eras as they can find who are still with us.

“We are hoping to get some World War II (veterans); but we’re going all the way to the Missouri border. So hopefully we’ll get some World War II veterans, and Korea,” Zoutte says.

“Got to figure World War II is a minimum of (in their) nineties, Korea’s a minimum of eighties, and some of the Vietnam veterans are seventies; so it’s just pushing it for maybe everybody.”

Also needed are volunteers to act as guardians; one must accompany each veteran, and they would prefer someone with experience in healthcare or as a first responder.