Central Missouri Honor Flight will begin shutting down operations after its final flight returns Monday from Washington D.C. The Columbia-based organization has raised funds to fly military veterans to the nation’s capital for 15 years, but declining interest has led group’s leaders to designate Monday’s flight the last one ever.

Steve Paulsell is Vice President and Flight Director for Central Missouri Honor Flight.

“The applications started dwindling off over a year ago, almost two years ago. So we thought, ‘Well, we don’t really want to just fade away gradually,'” he told Missourinet. “And so, we targeted this year — end of this year — as the end.”

Seventy-seven Vietnam veterans from central Missouri took part in the final flight.

Honor flights fly aging military veterans to Washing

See Full Page