Fifty-nine veterans came home to Rochester on the last Honor Flight of the year

Honor Flight Rochester brought its last group of 2026 home on Sunday, News10NBC reported. Mission 99 took 59 veterans to the memorials in Washington, D.C., for the weekend. Organizers called it a trip of a lifetime for many of them. The veterans included two from the Korean War, one from the Cold War, one who served in both the Cold War and Vietnam, nine from the Vietnam War, and 46 who served after 1975. By branch, the flight counted 17 from the Air Force, 22 from the Army, four from the Marine Corps, and 16 from the Navy.

Willie Lightfoot Sr., an Air Force veteran of Operations Enduring Freedom, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm, traveled with his son, Willie Lightfoot Jr., as his guardian. Lightfoot Sr. told the station the trip stood out because it included a ceremony and ribbon-cutting for a Desert Shield and Desert Storm memorial, and because he was among many veterans of those years. His son said it was an honor to take his father and to watch him meet people again whom he had not seen in a long time. Counting this mission, the group has flown 5,136 veterans since 2008. The flight is a donated trip to the memorials. It does not change how long those veterans waited to be recognized.