Providence Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Andre Lussier, of Middletown, a Navy veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, is among the New England veterans who will travel to Washington D.C. this weekend on an "honor flight" to the World War II Memorial.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- An airliner will depart Boston's Logan Airport Sunday on an "honor flight," a poignant mission to carry members of the ever-shrinking pool of World War II veterans to the monument that was erected in their honor in Washington in 2004.
On board will be veterans from all of the New England states. The oldest among them is 100, according to David Sarlitto, marketing director for Ocean State Job Lot, which raised money to charter the flight by appealing to its customers.
"This is a program that doesn't have a whole lot of time left to it," Sarlitto said. He said many of the veterans had not visited the monument because of health problems or a lack of money.
He said the idea began to grow a few months ago when an Ocean State Job Lot official ran across an article describing another such flight. He said company officials decided to place posters by the checkout counters explaining the honor flight principle.
"We put the program together on a Wednesday," he said, "and by the following Monday we had raised $82,000."