AMVETS requests mail call letters for Honor Flight vets

The Phillips AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary Post 50 held its annual breakfast meeting on March 11, where they honored the eight Vietnam Era veterans they are sponsoring to attend the April and May Never Forgotten Honor Flight trips. The veterans will get to visit the various war monuments that were built in their honor and visit the many sights in Washington D.C.

The Honor Flight itinerary is designed to recreate some of the experiences that are common to veterans of all branches of service. This includes the familiar mail call on the return flight, which replicates the experience of receiving mail while on active duty. For the Honor Flight, the veterans will receive cards and letters from well-wishers who want to thank a veteran and will recreate the experience of the serviceman or woman hearing their names called to announce that they have mail.

Area veterans of the Vietnam Era who are traveling with the April 22 Honor Flight trip include U.S. Navy veterans Wayne Brecht, Gerald Brillhart and Edwin Hilgart, all of Park Falls, and Jerome Wirsing, of Phillips, and U.S. Army veteran LeRoy Ciscon, of Phillips.

Fellow Vietnam Era veterans who are traveling with the May 20 Honor Flight include Michael Lazar and Ronald Runnheim, both of Kennan, and Michael Spagnola, of Prentice.

Each veteran also received a patriotic lap size commemorative quilt courtesy of the Phillips Helping Hands Quilting Club.

The $4,000 transportation and pre-flight lodging for each veteran was sponsored by the AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary Post 50. The auxiliary raised the funds by holding summer brat sales, raffles for three separate metal American flag plaques, and for two quilts that were made and donated by Christina Boushon with machine quilting help from Jane Korab.

The AMVETS Auxiliary members also assisted Pam and Chuck Goebel with their annual Honor Flights Breakfast and basket raffles that are held at South Fork Bar & Grill in Lugerville in September.

To send a card or letter for the Honor Flight mail call, address it by April 12 to the veterans name, care of Never Forgotten Honor Flight, 225780 Rib Mountain Drive #780 Wausau, WI 54401.