EPISODE 29: Honor Flight of Oregon: A Journey of Gratitude

🎙️ Episode 29 – Team Senior Podcast

Honor Flight of Oregon: A Journey of Gratitude

In this heartfelt episode, Jamie Callahan sits down with Pete Pringle, President of Honor Flight of Oregon, to explore how this incredible nonprofit honors our veterans by flying them—free of charge—to Washington, D.C. to visit their memorials.

You’ll hear:
 🇺🇸 The story behind Honor Flight and how it began
 ✈️ What the trip includes—from airfare to meals to a dedicated guardian for each veteran
 🎖️ How each journey reconnects veterans with their stories, families, and one another
 ❤️ Why moments like the Changing of the Guard and airport welcomes bring healing and closure

Honor Flight of Oregon takes WWII, Korean, and Vietnam veterans on the trip of a lifetime—completely free for them. For many, it’s a long-overdue “welcome home.”

📞 To apply, volunteer, or donate:
Visit honorflightoforegon.org

Call 541-450-9807
Follow Honor Flight of Oregon on Facebook.

📞 For Team Senior resources: 541-295-8230

At Team Senior™, our mission is to guide you and support you through the maze of Southern Oregon Long-Term Care.

📞 For Team Senior resources, call: 541-295-8230

Or visit our website for more information: https://www.teamsenior.org/

Transcript

Episode 29- Honor Flight of Oregon

Host: Jamie Callahan
Guest: Pete Pringle, Honor Flight of Oregon

JAMIE CALLAHAN: Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging. Society grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement, where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke, or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia. That's our area of expertise, and we are here to share our insight.

And now, the Team Senior Podcast.

Hi, this is Jamie Callahan, and I have Pete Pringle in the office today. Many of you probably don't know him. At the end of this podcast, I hope that you really get to know him. And if you are a veteran, I hope you take full advantage of what he is here to talk about, which is Honor Flight of Oregon.

Pete, welcome. Thank you for joining us. Talk to us a little bit about what you do for Honor Flight.

PETE PRINGLE: I'm the president for the Honor Flight. I lead the board of the members that do all the planning and prepping and make all the reservations and get the flight set up.

JAMIE: Got it. So for those folks that might not be familiar with Honor Flight, what is it?

PETE: Honor Flight is where we take World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans to Washington, D.C., absolutely no cost to them—not a dime out of their pocket—for a four-day trip to visit and explore the memorials and sightsee the sights in Washington, D.C.

JAMIE: Very nice. How big is the group that you normally take?

PETE: In total, we're like either 55 or 56—24, 25 veterans plus a guardian to go with them, and then our staff members that make the trip happen.

JAMIE: And do you also take a nurse?

PETE: We take two.

JAMIE: You take two nurses?

PETE: We take two nurses every trip.

JAMIE: Wow. That is amazing. That is amazing. So what memorials do they go to see? All of them? Like, Korean, Vietnam?

PETE: Yeah, yeah. We always start out with the World War II, even if we don't have a World War II veteran, because it's such a beautiful site, and you get to see the history and then what was done to honor them. And then from there, we go over to the Vietnam Wall, which is also the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. And then from there, we go out and we visit—each branch of service has a memorial, and we stop at each one. We do individual group pictures with each of the members of that branch at each one, which is kind of a neat thing. We get to egg each other on and call jokes at the ones that we're used to doing, like the military does.

JAMIE: Oh, I know. I've seen it.

PETE: Yeah. And then we also stop at Arlington and watch a Changing of the Guard, which is always a special one for the veterans. That's very, very humbling and very—yeah, a lot of history.

JAMIE: So for people that don't know, tell us what the Changing of the Guard is.

PETE: Changing of the Guard—there's an Army unit that does nothing but—they dedicate two years of their lives and almost have to designate a whole lifetime to be a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where they do 24/7, rain or shine. They have an option, even if the weather's bad, like a hurricane or sub-zero weather, to go into a shack and stand off to the side. But since they started, none of them have ever done that. They've always done their duty.

JAMIE: So what are they doing 24/7?

PETE: They're pacing back and forth, 21 steps. Everything's in 21s, and come back the other way. Turn. Everything's done in sequence, and they are sharp, sharp looking. They have to be a special type of soldier to do that. And they have to be certified and super trained and have—yeah, they're just—it's amazing to watch.

JAMIE: It's really impressive. I've seen it. And that guy that's walking back and forth, they are well-dressed. And it's almost like a machine.

PETE: Right. Yeah, absolutely. And then the sergeant of the guard comes out and changes out the other guards at—certain times of year, it's every half hour, and other times of year, it's every hour. So they get plenty of time to be pacing back and forth in between the shifts, so—

JAMIE: Got it. Yeah, that's—yeah, it's an absolute honor to get to go and see that. So let's talk a little bit more about Honor Flight. So Honor Flight leaves from Southern Oregon once a year, twice a year?

PETE: We go twice a year—one in a spring trip and a fall trip, usually in May, and then again in September.

JAMIE: Okay. And on this trip, you're taking 56-ish people?

PETE: Yep.

JAMIE: Half of which are veterans, and the other half is guardians.

PETE: Guardians. Correct.

JAMIE: So talk to us about who can be a guardian.

PETE: Guardians are—we usually prefer to have them be a family member so they can share the experience with their loved one. When the program first started, it was just for World War II veterans, and spouses were not allowed to go because they were usually the same age or older. And anyway, it's changed now, and spouses can go if they are physically fit and don't need special care of themselves, because we want the experience to be about the veterans. We don't want them to have to worry about their guardian or trying to care for their guardian. That's not what the program's designed to do. It's to get the veterans the ultimate experience.

JAMIE: Right. So as you know, I'm acutely familiar, right? I've been on Honor Flight. I was a guardian. And I know that you are trained as the guardian right out of the gate to make sure that the veteran that you are there to care for always has water. You're always pushing a wheelchair behind them, even if your veteran tells you that they don't want it or need it, because the idea is that if at any point they need any assistance, they have one designated person to take care of all of their possible needs.

PETE: Right. That person stays with them. We tell them you've got to be within an arm's distance. If they start to stumble or trip, you've got to be able to catch them. We don't want any falls or—have the wheelchair right there, you can get them in the wheelchair. We do special training prior to the trip and go over all the rules and regulations that we want the guardians to find or follow, like locking the wheels on the wheelchair, getting in, getting out, being at the stairs to help them up and down the stairs on the bus, making sure they don't leave anything behind at the airport or on the bus or any of the memorials, and just being there to be their companion and travel with them the entire trip 24/7 for the four days.

JAMIE: So when someone goes on Honor Flight, what is included for the veteran?

PETE: Everything. All the air travel, the bus, the hotel, the meals—all everything. And yeah, there's things we provide along the way that I don't want to spoil it for the ones that haven't been, but we do some surprises that everybody's always happy with.

JAMIE: Yeah, it's amazing. I am familiar with some of those. I won't spoil it either, but it is really amazing. So let's talk a little bit about the selection process. How does somebody apply to go on Honor Flight?

PETE: Yep. So we have paper applications, or we have online applications. We have our website, honorflightoforegon.org. You can get links off of our Facebook page of the same name, Honor Flight of Oregon. We have an email address. It's honorflighoforegon@gmail.com. So that's all—it's all the same name, just the three different venues. And people submit their applications, we get them. And if we have a World War II, they are on the absolute next trip. Same thing with Korea veterans now—they will absolutely be on the very next trip that we have scheduled.

JAMIE: And that's based on age, right? Based on age. So the age of the war, the length of time ago that the war happened. So again, World War II—if you are a World War II veteran, you can get on the list and go on the very next trip that Honor Flight is taking. Right. If you are a Korean War vet, that's also likely true, because right now we have many, many Vietnam vets that are signing up. The other thing that sets precedence is—

PETE: Is if there's any terminally ill veteran that served at any time, even if they served last month and got out with a terminal illness, they can—they are eligible to go even—they don't have to be World War II, Korea, Vietnam. Any terminally ill veteran can be on the very next trip.

JAMIE: So from any war.

PETE: Any war.

JAMIE: Okay. I did not know that.

PETE: Any time of service. Yeah.

JAMIE: Okay. Wow. That is amazing.

PETE: That's an eligibility that kind of changed and got added within the last few years.

JAMIE: Yeah. That's amazing. And so deserving. I mean, going to Washington, D.C.—I had been there many times before I went on Honor Flight, and I've shared this story around several times. And I've been to all of the monuments before I went on this trip with Honor Flight. And not only was it just that much more emotional to be there with a group of veterans—it was such an honor to be there—it was also shocking. When I saw the agenda, my first take, because I've traveled around there a little bit, was: there is no way—

PETE: No way we get it done.

JAMIE: You look at all the places that you're going to go and all the things that you're going to see, and you think, one, you're going to be exhausted because you're going to be walking so far. But hey, veterans, you don't have to walk. You have a guardian to push you. So that's number one. Number two is the list of places you see would be impossible if you were just the average Joe going to Washington, D.C., trying to see them. But what happens for Honor Flight—and it's not just from Oregon, it's from all over the country—they have a police escort everywhere they go. So they are literally blowing through traffic lights, making incredible time, getting from one end of the town to the other. It would be impossible to do, literally impossible, without that.

PETE: Right. Well, right now it's just down to the World War II, Vietnam, Lincoln, Korea in that area. So we used to be able to get escorts further than that, even from the hotel to the airport or the airport to the hotel. But the police service has kind of had to scale back. But the bus drivers that we have on these buses—we got these charter buses that'll hold 55, 56 people, and that's what limits the size of our group—they know exactly what they're doing. They've done multiple flights, multiple trips for Honor Flight from groups all over the country. And we have drivers that we really like, and we always request them specifically for our group. And they said, "Yes, I want Honor Flight of Oregon."

JAMIE: I love that. I love that. Yeah, that's really, really cool. The other thing that is really amazing—well, they go to see some museums and some other things like that, but something I could not have anticipated, because I just had no idea. I didn't really know a lot about Honor Flight when I had the opportunity to be a guardian for somebody, and I, of course, immediately jumped on it. And one thing that should be noted here is that while the veterans do not pay anything to go on this trip, the guardians do pay. What is it, like $1,100?

PETE: It depends on the cost at the actual cost. During the trip, when we're getting the trip set up, the airfare costs, the hotel costs, the meal costs—everything's balanced out and gives a one cost for the entire thing.

JAMIE: Gotcha.

PETE: And we don't call it a fee. We call it—the guardians have to make a donation to support themselves on the trip. And even us as staff provide our own funding for the trips, because every bit of money that we raise goes to provide the trip for the veterans.

JAMIE: Of course. Just for the veterans.

PETE: Of course. Of course.

JAMIE: Yeah. And they get a lot of donations throughout the year. But I will say, I mean, Honor Flight is a very worthy cause. And if you wanted to make a donation to the program, I'm sure you could just go to honorflight.com. You would learn all about how to do that there. But again, the trip is not free for guardians. It is completely free for the veterans. The veterans do not have to pay for anything, not one single cent out of their own pocket. And it is worth it, you know, if you are a Korean War veteran and you want to go have a remarkable experience with your grandson or your granddaughter, this is it. You know, I think you have to be 18 years of age or older, but you're not going to have a more emotional kind of opportunity to connect with someone in a younger generation than taking this trip with them. It is amazing.

PETE: Right. It is. We've had—we had a veteran that I know from a VFW, and I finally talked him into going. He's like, "Well, I don't know who to take as a guardian." I said, "Take your grandson." And him and his grandson didn't really have a bond or much of a—hadn't spent much time with each other. But during the trip, they bonded extremely well, and now they do things outside all the time. They're always getting together, doing different things now. It was just—it was a great moment to watch that happen.

JAMIE: Yeah. That's super awesome. What a testament to the trip. Taking a turn for something you couldn't have anticipated—going through the airports also, you are recognized, you know. And one thing that I think really came to light for me that I wasn't acutely aware of—you know, I didn't grow up when Vietnam was happening. In fact, I wasn't even born. So I wasn't really aware of how veterans were not well received when they returned home. That wasn't even anywhere on my radar. And of course, you know, I learned a little bit about it as a young adult and kind of growing into this opportunity to serve veterans, which is the role that I am in now. And then going on Honor Flight and seeing tears rolling down the faces of these veterans that were greeted with such open arms and love and appreciation, and walking through the airports or showing up to museums or walking down to the Vietnam Wall and having people, you know, clap for them and celebrate them and show them that they are so appreciated—it was really, really profound.

PETE: And that's probably one of the best parts of the trip, is that's stuff we can't plan. It just happens, and that's what makes it so special. Because the public's attitude has changed completely for the Vietnam veterans. It wasn't their fault, but they were treated like it was their fault when they came home. But now it's done a 180, and everybody is so thankful, and they show it during these trips. They see a group of veterans coming through with their hats, and everybody—we dress them all the same with T-shirts and jackets, and you can't miss it. There's a string of wheelchairs for some of them. The ones that can walk always want to walk. They're kind of stubborn, even though they might should be in a wheelchair, but then some of them refuse it, of course. But it's just some really special moments like that that—yeah, when everybody stands and cheers and claps and—yeah, it's amazing.

JAMIE: Yeah, it is amazing. I mean, like I said, I am actually not a veteran. People are usually shocked by that, but I'm not. But it is, you know, it was really, really, really moving to be alongside those veterans and have them be received the way that they were, even the folks that weren't Vietnam veterans, of course. Just really, really cool. What are some fundraising events or community partnerships that the community should be aware of to help you raise money for this?

PETE: We attend a lot of the veteran events where we can do, like, dual recruiting for the trips and get people to fill out applications and also accept donations. We don't take donations from the veterans until after the trip if they want to. We refuse donations from any veteran that's getting signed up or wants to sign up, because—just wait. If you want to donate after, fine, but not until the trip is done.

JAMIE: Yeah. But you don't get to contribute to the cost of your trip.

PETE: That's right.

JAMIE: I agree. I agree. Pete, I know you're a veteran. Tell me, what does Honor Flight mean to you personally?

PETE: I started as a volunteer guardian, just like you did, and for a World War II Navy vet, because I'm retired Navy, and I wanted to be paired with a Navy veteran, and they did. And I just fell in love with his story and hearing his story. He had never told his family, but by the end of the trip, I had him promising me he would tell his family. And within weeks of the trip, his family sent me a letter thanking Honor Flight and thanking me for having their dad tell his story.

JAMIE: Oh my gosh. I had no idea.

PETE: It was absolutely amazing. He was on what they call a rocket ship, and I didn't know rocket ships existed. And I spent 23 years in the Navy. I had never heard of a rocket ship. But he then showed me pictures, told me the stories about them. He brought out books and pamphlets, and he had a whole packet of stuff ready to show anybody that wanted to look at it. And of course, I looked at every bit of it, and it was amazing. They were ships that were converted and put 75 five-inch rocket launchers on the deck. And they were taking over Okinawa. And once they got control—once the U.S. got control of Okinawa—then they had to protect it from the kamikazes and the air traffic coming in, trying to disrupt everything.

And kamikazes would come in and hit their stations, what they call radar stations, where the ships were stationed at these little islands around Okinawa. And his station got hit. There were four ships. They came in. They try to drop bombs on the ships first, and if they miss, then they dive and hit the ships with the plane. And his ship got hit with one. It exploded. Big fire happened. It knocked out the propulsion and the firefighting water. There was nothing, no way to put the fire out. Explosions kept happening because the rockets kept blowing up. And they kept trying to fight and save—trying to—they got a portable gas pump and were putting some water on it that way. And then the second one came in right along the water, hit them right inside of the ship. That one didn't explode, but it stuck into the side of the ship. And a third one came along. The ship ended up starting to sink, so the captain said, "Abandon ship."

They ended up in the water, and they were in the water about five hours. But my guy, my veteran—his nickname was Frosty—so Frosty pulled his life vest and then inflated it just like it was supposed to. But then it immediately started to deflate because it was full of shrapnel holes. That's when he realized he was full of shrapnel holes.

JAMIE: Wow.

PETE: So he's in the water. He found another flotation device and was hanging on that. And there was a group of guys from the ship, about 15 of them, kind of hanging onto each other. And they heard more planes coming, and they saw three planes coming along the horizon coming right towards them. And they got scared, thinking there's more Japanese planes coming. So they started swimming apart as fast as they could, so they wouldn't all get taken out in one big group—make us smaller targets. But as they got closer, they noticed the inverted wings of the F-4 Corsairs. Our guys.

JAMIE: Our guys.

PETE: So then they started cheering and waving, and they got back together. And the pilot dipped the wings, like, "Hey, I see you." And then about an hour later, a ship came and picked them up out of the water.

JAMIE: Oh my gosh. That's so amazing.

PETE: And he had never told his family that.

JAMIE: Yeah, until after the trip.

PETE: Until after the trip.

JAMIE: I feel like that in itself is a reason to encourage people to go on Honor Flight, you know, being surrounded by your peers. I know, like, in my own family, for example, my dad is Air Force, and I don't think he ever had any really tragic experiences. But I will say he doesn't really hang out with any other veterans. Right. And so being in an environment like that—and now he comes to the veterans breakfast, but he wasn't doing that before either. Right. Just giving people the chance to tell their story and then recognizing—I mean, the number of families that we talk to on a regular basis, and knowing that they don't know. They don't know why dad is sleeping in the rocking chair, and when you touch him, he, you know, throws you across a room or whatever that looks like. There are several books out there. I know Dave Wright, for example—he has a book that really encourages people to, you know, document what happened, you know, just by answering simple questions so that you can hand that off to your family and they can have a greater understanding of what you endured. Right?

PETE: Yeah. And David was just on one of our recent trips and gave a book to everybody on the trip. It was amazing.

JAMIE: Yeah, he's really great about giving away those books, and I feel like it has been such a valuable tool for so many families. So for people that are listening, whether they're veterans or family members, or maybe they're just proud Oregonians, what can they do right now to get involved, to nominate someone, to show their support, to help their family members get enrolled?

PETE: It doesn't even have to be a family member. If you see somebody with a hat, a veteran hat that says Vietnam veteran, Korea, and especially World War II, ask them if they've heard about Honor Flight. And if they haven't, tell them what you learned today and get them to sign up, and we will get them on a trip. That's one of the biggest things we need. And we always need funding, because everything we do is 100% funded by donations and a few sponsors. We have a great partnership with Alaska Airlines, because they donate 25 seats on the airline every single trip.

JAMIE: Wow.

PETE: So basically the veterans fly free with Alaska Airlines. So that's huge.

JAMIE: Yeah. That's a huge win. That's huge. Oh my goodness. Yeah. That's amazing.

PETE: So we put their logo on our T-shirts that everybody wears, and then on our pamphlets and online—everything—so we can advertise for them. Because that's a great partnership.

JAMIE: Absolutely. Yeah. It's worth flying Alaska just for that. So, Pete, tell us again—if somebody wants to sign up for Honor Flight, what is the website? What is your phone number?

PETE: Okay. The website is honorflighoforegon.org. We have the Facebook, which is Honor Flight of Oregon. You can find it there, which has links to the website. Or we have our email, honorflighoforegon@gmail.com. We have our phone number. I've got the actual Honor Flight phone number. I'll get it.

JAMIE: So while Pete is digging out his business card, I want to correct something that I said earlier. Earlier when I shared the name of the website, I actually shared it incorrectly. It is not .com. It is .org. So honorflighoforegon.org.

PETE: Correct. And the phone number: 541-450-9807. So 541-450-9807.

JAMIE: Yep. 450-9807. Yep.

PETE: That goes right to our logistics person that handles the applications and most of the setup for the trip.

JAMIE: Perfect. Well, Pete, I can't thank you enough for coming on today. I'm a huge fan of yours for just—you know, it is a lot to organize all of this. I've been on the trip, and it is really impressive watching all of the well-oiled pieces of this. It will blow your mind. Just the logistics of it are really overwhelming. But thank you so much for coming on today.

PETE: Great. Thank you very much.

JAMIE: You are very welcome.

All right, well, this is Jamie Callahan. Thank you so much. Until we talk again next week, thank you for listening to the Team Senior Podcast. We're here every week sharing new and relevant information. Remember that we're just a phone call away. Team Senior can be reached at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Until next time, this is Jamie Callahan.