Our Mission
Honoring our local veterans of the Global War on Terrorism
About Our Mission
In 2023, Old Glory Honor Flight of Northeast Wisconsin embarked on a first of its kind mission called The Freedom to Liberty Tour: A Mission of Healing which honored local veterans who served during the Global War on Terrorism, America’s longest war. The idea was born from the very public mental health crisis our veterans are facing. And while the organization has honored more senior veterans for over 15 years, we felt the time was right to honor a younger generation and put our warriors on a path towards healing.
The inaugural group consisted of 59 GWOT veterans who were chosen through a random drawing during an open application period. The veterans were taken to New York to visit their memorial- the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Freedom Tower, and the Statue of Liberty during a three-night stay. The mission provided our veterans a chance to reflect on their service, find peace, bond with other veterans, aka their Battle Buddies, and offer them a chance to simply breathe and take it all in. The trip was made even more meaningful due in large part to our special guests which included 9/11 first responders and 9/11 survivors who shared their personal stories of resilience and faith. We were even joined by Medal of Honor Recipient David Bellavia, also a GWOT vet, who rallied our veterans and shared his insight.
The mission was a tremendous success that put many of our veteran participants on a healthier path. In fact, just one day after we got home, 7 of our veterans reached out to the VA to start counseling and a month later, over 30 of our veterans either started or restarted counseling and began that important first step towards healing. We couldn’t have been more pleased with the results and we are dedicated to seeing this mission continue even though we now realize it falls outside of the current guidelines of the Honor Flight Network. Going forward, Freedom to Liberty: A Mission of Healing will fall under the auspices of another non-profit called Missions of Honor.
Missions of Honor is an independent organization established to create new and innovative ways to honor America’s heroes of all ages. Although similar in some ways to Honor Flight, Missions of Honor is not an Honor Flight Network-sanctioned organization and any similarities between the organizations is unintentional and shall not be, in any way, viewed as collaboration between them.
We’ve only just begun and we hope you can support our efforts to honor those who gave so much.
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