So Much More Than a Flight — with Diane MacDonald
Operation Coffee Podcast · Episode 4 · Diane MacDonald
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▶ Listen on Spotify → ▶ Watch on YouTube →Most people around here have seen the homecoming. The hangar at the Appleton airport, the flags, everybody clapping. That is about ten minutes of something that takes a year.
Diane MacDonald is the Executive Director of Missions of Honor and Old Glory Honor Flight. She and her husband started Old Glory in 2009 after watching a story about an honor flight on TV on a Sunday afternoon. By Monday he had the paperwork. They formed the nonprofit in July and flew their first group of World War II veterans to Washington in October — which meant raising seventy thousand dollars in about three months, with no government money. There still is not any.
Seventeen years later it is Pearl Harbor survivors going back to Pearl Harbor. Vietnam veterans going back to Vietnam. Sixty-eight World War II veterans to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. And the Freedom to Liberty retreat, where Global War on Terrorism veterans go to New York City — because Ground Zero is our memorial — for four days built around mental health, with counselors and a chaplain along.
We talk about Chuck, the World War II veteran Diane was paired with on that very first flight, who left home at 17 and never talked about any of it. We talk about the veteran who walked up to her at the 9/11 Memorial Museum and said, "You saved a life today." And we talk about why so many of us say let the other guy go first — including me — and what she says back to that.
Diane says something in the middle of this I have not been able to put down: not every veteran needs counseling, and not everybody has a mental health problem, but everybody can use a friend.
If somebody has been telling you to apply and you keep not applying, this one is for you. It is your turn.
Recorded in the roasting room at Operation Coffee in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. 64 minutes.
How you can help right now
There is no government funding for any of this. Never has been. Diane is the only full-time employee.
Apply, or get a veteran to apply. The Washington, D.C. honor flights run off a wait list, open now to World War II through Vietnam veterans — and opening soon to anyone who served in 1991 or earlier. See the missions and get on the list.
Become a Guardian. Guardians travel with a veteran for the whole day. Training is provided. Sign up here.
Give. Every dollar goes into the next mission. Donate or sponsor a mission, or write a letter for Mail Call that gets handed to a veteran in the air.
Or buy a bag. Our Battle Buddy Blend carries the Missions of Honor seal and their story on the back.
Missions of Honor · Appleton, Wisconsin · (920) 257-2563 · missionsofhonor.org
Coffee. Conversation. Connection.