As Old Glory Honor Flight prepares for its 76th mission next week, a woman with dozens of trips serving as a guardian is encouraging others to sign up as well.
Jamie Lodes decided in 2013 to become a guardian with the organization, and since then, she has been on numerous trips with veterans, helping them have a safe and memorable experience.
“Every flight’s different. Every veteran is amazing. It’s changed my life for sure,” she told SeehaferNews.com
The “honor flight magic” hit Jamie with her very first veteran pairing.
“I was paired up with a Korean War veteran whom I had never met,” she recalled. “I talked with him the night before, and turns out, he lived on the same street as me. Then we became close friends. When he passed away, three months later…his family put my name in his obituary, and that’s how I became what we call a ‘super guardian.’”
Jamie took that experience and used it as fuel to continue serving as a guardian, an experience that has led her to meeting and befriending some amazing people along the way.
“I’ve become friends with all of my veterans,” she said. “A few of them have passed away over the years. I’ve been to funerals and gotten close with families and still keep in touch with a lot of them.”
Jamie, who is a nurse practitioner working with the elderly, has used her profession to encourage other veterans to sign up for a trip, even if they have mobility issues.
“I tell them we have a great medical team that comes with us, and we have done 75 flights and we’re prepared for all that,” she explained. “Make them realize that they deserve it.”
As one would suspect, the visit to Washington D.C. can be very emotional for veterans, especially as they see the monuments erected specifically for the war in which they served.
Jamie told us about one experience where she was paired with a Vietnam veteran, “Who had three pages of names of people he knew he had to find on the wall. I didn’t know if I could do it. He had told me about it beforehand and he didn’t know if he could do it. And together we found most of the names. We ran out of time, actually. But that time at the wall changed his life.”
Jamie is always encouraging more people to sign up to serve as a guardian.
Not only do you get to meet some amazing people and take a trip to our nation’s capital, but she also calls it a highly rewarding experience.
“I’ve had friends who have come on flights over the years…They say the same thing, that it changed their life,” she revealed.
The 76th Old Glory Honor Flight Mission will take off from the Appleton International Airport next Tuesday, and the public is invited to attend the Welcome Home Celebration Parade.
The plane is anticipated to land at around 9:15 p.m.
For more information on Old Glory Honor Flight and how you can sign up to be a guardian, visit OldGloryHonorFlight.org.
