Washington Co., Wi – There will be 13 veterans from Washington County, Wi on the next Stars and Stripes Honor Flight. The seventy-ninth “mission” will take off Saturday, April 26 when the flight departs for the nation’s capital. This flight will be the first Stars and Stripes Honor Flight of 2025.
Local veterans include Navy veterans Del Ellefson from Allenton and Clive Extence from Hubertus. Army veterans include Gerald Patoka Sr. from Jackson, Allen Bales from West Bend, Michael Bauer from Hartford, Clifford Van Beek from West Bend, Michael Adell from West Bend, Donald Jaeger from Hartford, Ronald Rosenberg from West Bend, David Brand of Slinger and Conrad Hannula from West Bend. Air Force veterans Charles Volrath from Slinger and Timothy Scherer from Germantown.
Two Southwest Airlines B-737 aircraft, an “alpha” plane and a “bravo” plane, will leave Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport at approximately 6:30 am and 7:30 am on flight day, bound for Washington Dulles International Airport with 116 local veterans (and their guardians) on board. On that day, Stars and Stripes Honor Flight will welcome 2 WWII veterans, 7 Korean War veterans and 107 veterans of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era.
Veterans taking their Stars and Stripes Honor Flight on April 26 include a 101-year-old WWII veteran of the European theater, a Vietnam War Army tank commander, and a Huey helicopter pilot who was shot down twice…