There is a moment that happens at Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois on the evening of an Honor Flight's return that no one who witnesses it ever quite forgets. The plane touches down. The door opens. And one by one, 88 veterans step onto the tarmac to find that thousands of their neighbors have come out to greet them, waving flags, cheering, and lining the Freedom Path in a sea of red, white, and blue. That moment returns to Marion on Monday, September 14, when Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois brings home the veterans of Flight 17, and the community is invited to celebrate.
The welcome-home celebration, free and family-friendly, begins at 5:30 p.m. outside the airline terminal at the airport. The veterans will have spent the day in Washington, D.C., touring the memorials and monuments built to honor their service and sacrifice. When they land, they'll be met by hundreds of well-wishers, a wall of sound, and the kind of gratitude that is difficult to put into words.
"The community support for the previous Honor Flight Welcome Home events has been overwhelming," said Deborah Hogg, one of the event's organizers. "There is no better way to celebrate our veterans and honor them than by giving them a hero's welcome home."
Food service begins at 5:30 and continues until all 88 veterans have passed through the Freedom Path. Nine local food vendors have signed on, including Crazy Asian Eats, Southern Fixin's, The Caribbean Hut, Big Nate's BBQ, Deep South, TasTea Bowls & Treats, Kettle Corn by Bob McSpadden, HoneyBeez Snowballz, and the American Ice Cream Truck. Each vendor has made a donation to Honor Flight to participate. Live music will be provided by Straight Street and Matt Basler, with River Radio's Steve Falat hosting the formal welcome-home ceremony at 9:45 p.m. Matt Throgmorton will perform the national anthem.
Families are particularly welcome. A children's zone will feature inflatables, face painting, and sign-making activities, so kids can create their own banners to wave as the veterans pass. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and patriotic signs, and veterans who participated in previous Honor Flights are asked to come in their red shirts, where they'll receive VIP access to the celebration.
More than 350 volunteers, identifiable by bright orange lanyards, will be stationed around the airport grounds and terminal lobby to help guide the crowd. Parking at the airport itself will be limited, so organizers are offering free park-and-ride services at Sam's Club and Cornerstone Church in Marion, with buses departing roughly every 20 minutes beginning at 5:30 p.m. Shuttle service is being provided by T-Street Rides, Shawnee Mass Transit, Jackson County Mass Transit, and Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois itself.
"We hope everyone will come out to the airport and help us welcome home our veterans," said Amanda Throgmorton, another organizer. "We want the veterans to witness a sea of red, white and blue when they depart the plane."
The celebration is the public culmination of a mission that began early that morning, when the veterans boarded a chartered flight at Veterans Airport bound for the nation's capital. Flights like these trace their origins to a simple but powerful idea that took root in 2005, when Earl Morse, a physician assistant at a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Ohio, realized that the World War II veterans he treated were aging quickly and dying without ever having seen the memorial built in their honor. Morse, a retired Air Force captain and private pilot, began flying small groups of veterans to Washington himself. His idea spread like wildfire, and within a few years the Honor Flight Network had grown into a national movement with hubs across the country.
Veterans Honor Flight of Southern Illinois, founded in this region about a decade ago, became one of those hubs. The organization is a volunteer-run nonprofit that covers the cost of airfare, ground transportation, meals, and beverages for every veteran on its one-day trips to the capital. Since its founding, it has transported more than 1,400 veterans to Washington, D.C. Each veteran flies for free and is accompanied by a trained guardian who ensures their safety throughout the day.
The organization's chairman, Bryan Questelle, said the work is far from finished. "We've taken over 1,400 veterans, and we're not slowing down," he said. "The generosity of our donors is making it possible." The group has already announced two missions for 2027, with plans to serve 190 additional veterans, and has secured a larger aircraft to increase the number of veterans per flight.
For the veterans of Flight 17, the day in Washington will include visits to the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and other sites along the National Mall. But as powerful as those monuments are, many veterans say the most moving part of the experience comes at the end, when they land back home and see the crowd waiting for them.
That is the moment Southern Illinois is being asked to create. The welcome-home celebration is open to all, no tickets required, no RSVP needed. Just show up, bring a flag, and be part of the greeting committee. When the veterans walk through the Freedom Path, they deserve to see that their community has not forgotten them.
"The community support for the previous Honor Flight Welcome Home events has been overwhelming," Hogg said.
And so the call goes out across the region: come to the airport, line the path, wave the flags, and cheer. The veterans of Flight 17 spent their day in the capital honoring the fallen. Southern Illinois will spend its evening honoring the living.