KHS Hosts Pre-Flight Dinner for Kentucky's First All-Female Honor Flight
Female veterans from across the commonwealth who have served from the Korean War to the War on Terror traveled from Lexington to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 11, for the Operation HERoes Honor Flight. KHS was proud to participate in this historic event.
On Friday, June 10, the veterans were honored at a reception and dinner at the Kentucky History Center, where the KHS gave attendees a preview of the upcoming exhibit on Kentucky’s women veterans titled Our Stories, Our Service. The completed exhibit will open in the late fall of 2022. General Lori Robinson, USAF (Ret.), the highest-ranking woman in U.S. military history as the former commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), was the keynote speaker. Sponsors of the event included:
- Kentucky Historical Society Foundation
- Operation HERoes Honor Flight Kentucky
- Gray Construction
- Expree Credit Union
- Stewart Home & School
- All Glory Project
- WTVQ-TV ABC 36
- Republic Bank
- VisitLEX
- Tom Munninghoff
- Red7e
- CGT Stivers Family Farm
- First Southern National Bank
- Jack Kain Ford
- Lora Suttles & Bob Hutchison
- M & M Services
- Studio 46
Operation HERoes was sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs (KDVA), the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS), and UPS. The mission was the first all-female flight coordinated by Lexington-based Honor Flight Kentucky (HFK).
The veterans flew from Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., where they boarded buses for a full day of honors. The group visited the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, observed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and stopped at the World War II Memorial, Marine Corps Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where they participated in a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the 265,000 women who served there.
