Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Cory Asato | CHICAGO (Oct. 19, 2022) – Accession Sailors assigned to Surface Combat Systems...... read more read more
Naval Station Great Lakes and tenant commands brought 154 Sailors to support Honor Flight Chicago’s (HFC) last flight of 2022 at Chicago Midway International Airport, Oct. 19, 2022.
Electronic’s Technician 1st Class Elizabeth R. Tamayo, stationed with Surface Combat Systems Command Great Lakes (SCSTC GL), led the Navy’s effort supporting the 106th HFC flight. Tamayo spent 490 hours organizing 11 Welcome Home ceremonies for 1,265 Wartime Veterans, coordinating transportation utilizing 21 qualified bus drivers, and leading 1,290 Staff and Student volunteers from 6 commands in the Great Lakes region.
“Honor Flight Chicago has been one of the most meaningful programs I have been able to be a part of,” said Tamayo. “This ceremony provided a renewed sense of pride in their military heritage for the Wartime Veterans, helping them forget the harsh welcome they received when they returned during their service. It also gives new accession Sailors a look into their past, learn about those who came before them, and render honors to their predecessors.”
HFC accepts applications for veterans from WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, for an all-expenses paid trip to the Day of Honor in Washington, D.C., visiting the memorials built in tribute to the service of veterans from those periods.
“Honor Flight Chicago’s mission is to Honor, Thank, and Inspire by building awareness and appreciation of the debt of gratitude America owes its veterans for their service and sacrifice for our nation,” according to their website.
The trips culminates into a most-welcomed greeting comprised of several hundreds to well over a thousand local community members and organizations paying their respects to the veterans.
“These veterans always be heroes in our eyes,” said Ron Wolflick, Chairman of Operation Locate a hero at HFC. “Whatever their service was to our country, it deserves everything, all of our efforts into them. They come back from the trip [to Washington, D.C.] thinking we’re done…with everyone’s help it’s possible to give them the best welcome home many of them never received.”
Great Lakes Sailors, alongside other uniformed service members welcomed each veteran with a salute and escorted the veterans with a parade through Navy side boys from the arrival gate all the way through more than a thousand cheering community members to the baggage claim to meet with the veterans’ families.
“All of our Sailors volunteered to be here,” said Capt. Roy L. Henkle, commanding officer of SCSTC GL. “My Sailors wanted to be a part of this history, with the same pride in their eyes as when they took their oath of enlistment, when they dawned their Navy ball cap after battle stations, when they chose to be in our Navy. Opportunities for our sailors to interact with our veterans and understand the benefits our country enjoyed due to what Sailors and troops have done in the past. Our Sailors can understand and be inspired to look to the future, what their service before self means.”
The next HFC flight is slated to take place April 2023.
For more information about Naval Station Great Lakes, visit: https://www.facebook.com/SCSTCGL/.
For more information about HFC, visit: https://www.honorflightchicago.org/.
| Date Taken: | 10.19.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.21.2022 20:49 |
| Story ID: | 431842 |
| Location: | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 315 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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