The Pope isn’t the only significant visitor to D.C. today. Earlier this morning, the first all-female honor flight brought 140 veterans to D.C. from Cincinnati via National Airport.
The group was brought to D.C. by the Honor Flight Network—a nonprofit that works to honors veterans by bringing them to D.C. to visit their memorials. Though women have been included in honor flights before, WUSA9 reports that usually the trips are predominantly men, with no more than five women traveling per trip.
Today’s Honor Flight marks the first time only women veterans have been brought to D.C. to visit the memorials. Though the Honor Flight Network primarily provides this service for senior citizen veterans, half of the passengers in today’s journey included veterans who served in the post-9/11 era, while the other half are World War II veterans.
VA Secretary Robert McDonald was present to meet the women at Arlington National Cemetery’s Women in Military Service Memorial. As they arrived at National Airport, they were greeted with quite a warm reception.
Veterans aboard the first all female Honor Flight arrive to a hero’s welcome @Reagan_Airport pic.twitter.com/qLkASHoxvW
— Reagan Airport (@Reagan_Airport) September 22, 2015
Preparing to welcome the first all female Honor Flight to @Reagan_Airport! pic.twitter.com/ozOOJkSQfe
— Reagan Airport (@Reagan_Airport) September 22, 2015