{"id":418791,"date":"2026-10-04T23:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418791\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T23:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:36:09","slug":"southwest-florida-2026-honor-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418791\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Florida 2026 honor flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; The volunteers behind Southwest Florida Honor Flight organization say their mission is simple: safely transport veterans to Washington so they can be honored at the memorials built for them and finally receive the welcome home they deserve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The group plans two flights in the coming year, with veterans set to depart from Sarasota in October and from Punta Gorda in April. Each one-day trip takes local veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Organizers describe the purpose as \u201cstraightforward and pure\u2011spirited\u201d giving veterans time to visit and reflect at the memorials and to be publicly thanked for their service. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The program serves all U.S. veterans, including aging World War II veterans, any veteran facing a terminal illness, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, and others who served.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/WMHRQPRPJBC7RC3HGSRGZW4IRQ.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"980\" \/>(SWF Honor Flight org.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Veterans travel at no cost and are accompanied by volunteer guardians and medical staff. The flights are funded entirely through donations and community fundraisers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Honor Flight Network has flown hundreds of thousands of veterans to Washington since 2005. The southwest Florida hub is encouraging eligible veterans and their families to apply for upcoming flights.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; The volunteers behind Southwest Florida Honor Flight organization say their mission is simple: safely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,8598,14484,78837,3393],"class_list":["post-418791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-honor-flight","tag-punta-gorda","tag-srq","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}