Send off planned for Honor Tour

Raising funds for the veterans’ Honor Tour keeps a local Vietnam vet busy. Tour coordinator Jerry Sneathern of Poplar Bluff is raising money to pay expenses for the 30 veterans who will take the tour Oct. 8-10 to the nation’s Capitol. For the first time, they will fly out of Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

The program assumes the cost and makes all of the arrangements for the veterans, Sneathern said.

When they leave at 6:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 8, traveling to Cape Girardeau “the Poplar Bluff police and fire departments, Butler County Sheriff’s Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol and a few dignitaries are going to escort us out of town as usual,” Sneathern said. “We’ll go by the VA hospital with staff outside holding flags like they always do.”

The donations may be made through the Wake Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, which is co-founded by Kennett native Robert D. Wake. He is a 58-year-old U.S. Army veteran who received a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq in 2004.

The cost per veteran is $1,000.

Sneathern said, “We’ll be taking 20 guardians, who will help us with the veterans. The guardians pay their own expenses.”

He said the plane will land at Washington Dulles International Airport and “we’ll hit the Virginia side, which is Arlington Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown, visit JFK’s burial site, Audie Murphy burial site across the street from the Tomb of the Unknown. Then, we’ll go to the Air Force Museum, the Navy Seabees Museum and the Marines Memorial and we’ll go to the 911 Pentagon Memorial. “That’s something new we’ve never been to before. That’s a busy day.”

Each day will be just as filled as Friday, he said.

“Most of these guys are Vietnam veterans,” he said. “We have two World War II veterans, three Korean veterans and the rest are Vietnam veterans.”

According to the schedule, they “are to return the Crowne Plaza Crystal City by seven for dinner each night,” Sneathern said.

If they run short on time “we’ll at least drive by memorials we don’t have time to see. We’re planning on spending a good 10 hours out there on Saturday. Sunday morning, we’ll get up. We don’t have a lot of time, but I’d like to take everyone on Embassy row.”

Sneathern collected money needed for this tour, but if anyone would like to donate to the next flight, they may use the Wake Foundation’s website, wakefoundation.org. Veterans who would like to participate in the tour also may apply on the website.

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager Katrina Amos’ staff is finalizing details, “but our goal is to make sure each veteran feels celebrated from the moment of arrival at CGI. We are very excited to work with the Wake Foundation and United Airlines — operated by SkyWest — to support a veterans’ honor flight. To be able to celebrate the veterans in our region and have the flight originate out of Cape Girardeau Regional is truly an honor.”

The plane will be able to accommodate as many as 17 wheelchairs.