Honor Flight Chicago
Mission: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.
Vision: Honor Flight Chicago encourages community and student participation in our programs honoring senior service
members from WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The centerpiece of our programming is the Honor Flight
escorting senior war heroes to Washington, D.C., for a Day of Honor at the memorials built in tribute to their service. This
trip is provided at no cost to the veteran and is intended as a heartfelt thank you for their service and sacrifice from a
grateful nation. HFC uses lessons derived from this trip in its Operation Education program, inspiring students to learn
about the service and sacrifice of our veterans.
Approach: Volunteers with Honor Flight Chicago’s Operation Locate a Hero recruit veterans for their flight while also
honoring the veteran’s service within their local communities. Top priority is given to our most-senior veterans: those
who served in WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Flight selection is based on the chronology of those wars,
satisfying medical requirements for travel, and the date a veteran’s application is received by Honor Flight Chicago. Once
a veteran has flown with HFC, they are able to be connected with schools in their community to share their stories and
experiences as living history for the next generation of Americans.
With the welcomed support of generous donors and a caring public, Honor Flight Chicago intends to continue
its mission to include veterans of wars – past, present, and future – as we recognize the bravery, determination, and
patriotism of our veterans.
Honor Flight Chicago is a 100 percent donor funded 501(c)3 not-for-profit. We receive no money from the government
and 96 percent of our total money spent goes directly to our veteran programming.
Volunteers: Honor Flight Chicago is a nearly all-volunteer organization with over 1,000 active volunteers. The vast
majority of those volunteers live in the Chicagoland area, where it takes a minimum of 1,500 person-hours to get each
flight off the ground. On flight day, each veteran is escorted on their Day of Honor by a 1-on-1 Guardian. The vast
majority of those Guardians come from an important group of dedicated volunteers who live in the Washington, D.C.
area. Without their support, we could not reach our average of over 115 veterans on each HFC flight.
Our Numbers:
Total veterans transported to date by Honor Flight Chicago: 12,212
WWII Veterans flown: 6,357
Korean War Veterans flown: 2,284
Vietnam War Veterans flown: 3,571
Due to age, WWII and Korean War Veterans receive priority selection for the next available flight.
Vietnam Veterans are flown in date order based on when their application is received.
The number of Vietnam Veterans currently on our waiting list: 1,500+
That Was Then…
Inaugural Flight: June 11, 2008
- Honor Flight Chicago flew 60 WWII veterans whose average age was 83
- 45 guardians
- Flight made possible by 29 volunteers and 275 person-hours
- Flight cost: $35,000
This Is Now!
Most Recent Flight (our 126 th !): October 15, 2025
- Honor Flight Chicago flew 108Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, average age of78
- Traveled with 66 Guardians on the plane and met 94Guardians in Washington, D.C. for a total of 160
- Guardians on the trip (over a 1:1 ratio)
- Flight made possible by more than 1,500 volunteer person-hours
- Flight cost: $140,000
Fast Facts…
- Honor Flight Chicago has just 2.5 paid staff members.
- Honor Flight Chicago works year-round to accomplish its goal of seven flights of WWII, Korean War, and
- Vietnam War veterans per year.
- In a typical year, Honor Flight Chicago flies once per month from April through October.
- Honor Flight Chicago was founded in 2008 by four women. One of them, Mary Pettinato, was inspired followingan encounter with an early hub while taking her father to the WWII Memorial in 2007. Pettinato went on to serveas HFC’s CEO until her retirement in 2018.
- Honor Flight Chicago served WWII veterans only until 2015. HFC expanded its mission to include Korean Warveterans in 2016 and Vietnam War veterans in 2019. Now all three generations travel together on each flight.
- In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic forced the postponement of all of Honor Flight Chicago’s planned missions toD.C. The volunteer corps swiftly pivoted, hand delivering thousands and thousands of yard signs and windowdecals that publicly thanked those veterans still waiting for their Day of Honor. This initiative was later expandedto include alumni, as well. When the veterans could not come to us, we went to the veterans to say thank you --safely. We returned from the pandemic with four flights in a 10-week span in the fall of 2021!
- Honor Flight Chicago is part of the national Honor Flight Network which comprises130 not-for-profitorganizations (“hubs”) across the country who share the name Honor Flight, as well as a common mission andbest practices.
- Honor Flight Chicago is the largest hub in the Honor Flight Network, having flown more veterans than any otherhub in the country. Honor Flight Chicago sets the standards for many of the best practices used nationwide, andflewits 12,000 th veteran in September of 2025.
- May of 2025 marked the 20 th anniversary of the founding on the Honor Flight movement as a whole. Collectively,all hubs have combined to fly more than 320,000 senior war heroes to our nation’s capital.
- While Honor Flight Chicago does have a defined territory, it is important to know that if a veteran can get to andfrom Chicago, our organization is more than willing to honor him or her. To date, Honor Flight Chicago hasflown veterans and guardians from nearly all 50 states.
