EL PASO, Texas \u2014 A group of West Texas veterans received a $1.7 million grant signed by Gov. Greg Abbott as part of the Texas Veterans Commission\u2019s Grants Across Texas Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The grant aims to help over 1,800 veterans in the El Paso area when it comes to housing, transportation and family services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rio Grande Honor Flight team set off to Washington, D.C. for Mission 22, where they will be surrounded by fellow veterans who reflect on the time they served. With the $1.7 million grant through the Texas Veterans Commission, the team said it\u2019s nice to feel appreciated and worth investing in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to be able to have the pride, and to be able to show that,\u201d said U.S. Army combat medic veteran Deb\u00f3 Wakefield. \u201cWe take the uniform off, but our service is never done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What formed in Southern New Mexico and eventually expanded into El Paso, the Rio Grande Honor Flight team flew to the nation\u2019s capital for its 22nd time, or for the vets, Mission 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl Paso could not have their own hub because we were too close to them, and we didn\u2019t,\u201d said Elaine Prickett, the flight operations coordinator for Rio Grande Honor Flight. \u201cThey didn\u2019t ask us what border we lived in, what state we lived in, when they went to war to stand up for us, and we were not going to ask veterans where they lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran and retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Alfredo Flores, this is his first time flying with this crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to D.C. before and seen most of those monuments,\u201d said Flores. \u201cThis is going to be a totally different experience because I\u2019ll be going along with other veterans where we can share stories, experiences of what we did, what happened to us, and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickett said these Honor Flights are a source of healing for veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about seeing the memorials,\u201d said Pickett. \u201cWhat we\u2019re really about is bringing closure and healing to these veterans that never got the homecoming they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the team is off to D.C. for a few days, veteran groups in West Texas received a split portion of a $1.7 million grant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s so important to support any area that has veterans,\u201d said retired Col. Chip Osborne, the director of veterans services at the Texas Veterans Commission. \u201cWe should leave no veteran behind and their family members. These guys, you know, pay the ultimate sacrifice. By serving their country, going overseas. Some have done multiple deployments, and so we really need to make sure we take care of them. This is just one mechanism of being able to help take care of veterans out in the El Paso area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The $1.7 million will be distributed among several veteran organizations in El Paso. They\u2019ll assist with veteran public transportation, financial assistance, treatment court, housing and counseling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 32 veterans who are part of the Honor Flight will be returning to El Paso International Airport on Saturday around 4 p.m. Guests are encouraged to line the streets with banners and signs welcoming home our vets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas \u2014 A group of West Texas veterans received a $1.7 million grant signed by Gov.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[7051,132,1570,102,138,140,139,56,2672,223,8075,82,151397,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-448018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-app-military","tag-austin","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-houston","tag-military","tag-news","tag-rotx-what-you-need-to-know","tag-san-antonio","tag-solomon-ladvienka","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}