“Once you team up with your veteran, that’s where your responsibility for their safety kicks in,” Honor Flight Savannah board member Marian Spears told volunteers Saturday. “You go where they go. You need to stay within reach or within sight of your veterans.”

Honor Flight Savannah held a guardian training session at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Pooler to prepare volunteers for safeguarding the elderly military veterans they will escort on upcoming trips to Washington, D.C. The next trip is scheduled for April 8-10. The local chapter serves the coastal areas of Georgia and South Carolina.

The training was facilitated by Honor Flight Savannah founder Larry Spears and his wife, Marian Spears, along with chapter Vice President Ed Wexler. Army Reserve Ambassador and Honor Flight Savannah board member Luis Carreras of Hinesville also attended the training.

Honor Flight volunteers will escort veterans, most in their 80s, to visit the World War II Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials  at the nation’s capital.

The next group of veterans is traveling by train rather than by plane because air fare is expensive due to rising oil prices, Carreras said.

Honor Flight guardians pay their travel expenses out-of-pocket. Their volunteer service is tax deductible. The veterans’ expenses are paid in full by the organization.

“Veterans don’t pay for anything on this trip, not even a Coke,” Marian Spears said.

“We’ve never lost a veteran,” Larry Spears said.

For more, pick up a copy of the March 23 edition of the News.