Honor Flight with Duane Roemmich

Welcome to the 'Open Forum in The Villages, Florida' podcast, hosted by Mike Roth. This episode dives into the community-driven efforts of Honor Flight with guest Duane Roemmich, a retired sales and marketing executive and key figure in the Honor Flight network. The discussion covers the origins of Honor Flight, founded by Earl Morris, and its expansion through Jeff Miller's influence. Since its inception, the Villages' hub has flown over 2,400 veterans to Washington D.C. for free to honor their service. The episode also outlines the costs, logistics, and profound emotional impact of these journeys. It highlights their unique 'flightless flights' for those unable to travel and the integral role of guardians. The episode concludes with details on how listeners can support or join the initiative and a touching acknowledgment of how meaningful contributions greatly enrich the lives of veterans. Additionally, there is a health tip from Dr. Craig Curtis about Alzheimer's prevention.

Season 8 Introduction

Transcript

Duane Roemmich

[00:00:00] Dolores: Welcome to the Open Forum in The Villages, Florida podcast. In this show, we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in The Villages to get perspectives of what is happening here in The Villages, Florida. We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters in episodes. In season six, we will continue making substantial improvements to the podcast.

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[00:02:00] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages.

I'm here today with Duane Roemmich. Duane is a professional sales and marketing executive, and he's worked in the consumer and industrial markets. Duane retired in 2013 and moved to The Villages. He became an honor flight volunteer in 2015 in the fundraising area. Then he became the fundraising coordinator and moved to the PR coordination in 2021. Today. Duane is in the honor flight management team. And has been a guardian and squad leader on many flights.

Thanks for joining me today, Duane. 

[00:02:39] Duane Roemmich: Mornin 

[00:02:39] Mike Roth: Duane why don't you tell our audience, who doesn't know what Honor Flight is, a little bit about what Honor Flight does. 

[00:02:46] Duane Roemmich: I'd be happy to do that. If you step back in time, think of 2004. In 2004, the World War II Memorial was going to be dedicated in Washington, D. C., after a lot of hard work by many people. And there was a gentleman named Earl Morris, who was a retired Air Force Captain. working as a physician assistant at the VA clinic in Dayton, Ohio. And most of his clients were World War II veterans. So he would be talking to them during the time they spent together and saying, boy, you must be pretty excited about going to the World War II memorial.

And for a majority of his patients they had no family and, or they didn't have any money. and weren't going to be going. So he felt pretty bad about that given the sacrifices this, that generation made. So he was a member of a pilot's club and he approached the members of his pilot's club and say, look, this is really unfair.

I've got a couple of patients here who would love to be able to go to DC, but they're not going to be able to do that. Can some of you join me and wanting to fly them back to Washington, DC? At no cost. And about six of them said yes. So in 2005, there really was the first flight of honor flight back to Washington, D. C. And showed the veterans around and everybody had a great time. And he said, Hey, I'd want to expand that. In 2005, there was a gentleman named Jeff Miller in North Carolina. And he was not in the service, but a lot of his relatives were. And he owned a number of dry cleaning businesses. And he heard about this Honor Flight, and he said, this is a great idea, but I'd like to maybe make a bigger deal than flying individual little planes.

So he chartered a plane and took a large number of veterans back to D. C., the same type of format. And he called his organization Honor Heir. In 2006, both Earl Morris and Jeff Miller got together and said, Hey, let's pool our collective intellectual resources and our concern about veterans. And they formed an organization, a non profit called Honor flight network. So since that time, there's approximately 130 hubs around the country that do the same thing. Fly veterans for free back to Washington DC to honor them for their services. And so now we move into Honor Flight here in The Villages. How did that start? So there was a gentleman, a retired Army Veteran named Mark Freudlich, who in 2011 said, I've heard about this organization Honor Flight.

It's a great organization. We have a lot of Veterans in The Villages, and I'd like to start a hub here. So in 2011, The Villages Honor Flight was started. As a 501c3 nonprofit, the first flight was really in 2012 and flew the first set of veterans. So fast forward from 2012 up until May of this year, we've flown over 2, 400 veterans for free back to Washington, D. C. 

[00:05:56] Mike Roth: How many flights was that? 

[00:05:57] Duane Roemmich: We're now starting our 63rd flight, which will be later in, in the year. So we average around three to four flights a year. And then we have something called a flight list, which I can talk about a little bit later. 

[00:06:11] Mike Roth: The first time I ran into honor flight in reality, Was one , late evening, about 1 a. m. I was coming, flying back into Cincinnati, maybe 15 years ago. And, I get to the place where you exit the security area, and there were about 150 people yelling and screaming, carrying on with flags, and I'm saying, What the heck is this going on? Yeah, and then I realized that was a reception for the auto flight honorees going back to cincinnati that day.

[00:06:41] Duane Roemmich: Yes. It's a very moving experience, by the way, 

[00:06:44] Mike Roth: Right? They were very motivated crowd at 1 a. m I said wow, this is this has got to be something. Now who is eligible to participate in the Honor Flight program? 

[00:06:53] Duane Roemmich: If you think about veteran, it's really any veteran that served at least one day in the service, doesn't matter what service, and was discharged honorably.

That's it. That's it. And as far as the veterans go, as I mentioned earlier, we're a 501c3, so we're non profit. We do not charge the veteran anything. They fly for free. And so because of that, we're constantly doing a lot of fundraising activities in The Villages raising money. Probably about 50 percent of the funds that come into us are due to fundraising activities that we do as a organization.

Probably another 25 percent are from other organizations and businesses in The Villages area that will do fundraising and then donate money to us. And then probably the last 25 percent is our people through their estates or individual. A lot of times after someone has gone on a flight, their family will make a donation.

So we're always out raising money and 

[00:07:50] Mike Roth: So you're flying on commercial aircraft. 

[00:07:52] Duane Roemmich: We fly in commercial aircraft. Now we used to. Actually fly on commercial up until about three years ago. And then we decided for better utilization of time and space, we would charter. So we charter now, right now it's Allegiant Airlines out of Sanford.

 And the way the flights work is we meet at the American Legion post. At about 

[00:08:15] Mike Roth: the one in lady

[00:08:15] Duane Roemmich: eight one o'clock, about one o'clock, one 30 in the morning. , we get together, kinda go over what the day's going to be looking like. Then we transport them by bus down to Sanford and we have breakfast, not gourmet, halfway decent breakfast.

We'll probably leave for BWI around six 30 in the morning. , we get into BWI, then we get on buses again. And then we spend the day seeing the various monuments at, in the Washington, D. C. area. We will go to, we'll drive by the Marine Corps Memorial. And we don't stop there because there's no restrooms.

And as you can imagine, given we have a lot of older veterans and needing to use restrooms a lot, a place with no restrooms wouldn't work out. Then we'll go to depending upon the weather and time of the day, We go to Arlington National Cemetery, and we will observe the ceremonies there and typically we have Some veterans not many anymore.

They're in wheelchairs So there's a special area set up at Arlington for veterans in wheelchairs, which is a really good location So we will Watch the ceremony, spend a little bit of time prior to that. People can walk around, see where Audie Murphy's grave is, some other things. Then once we get done with that, we will take off and go to lunch.

Now, it used to be the Air Force Memorial, but they're doing some work and stuff over there. So we're working out where we will go for the next luncheon. Then we will. Go to the World War II Memorial, which is the largest back in Washington, D. C. We'll take photographs there of the group. And then people will basically go off as to where they like to spend the most amount of time.

Vietnam veterans certainly would go to the Vietnam Memorial. Korean War veterans would go to Korean War Memorial. Some of the veterans would like to go to the Lincoln Memorial there. And, when Honor Flight first started, And in The Villages, there was a very high percentage of World War II vets.

Unfortunately, they're passing away. Right now, we're probably looking at about 3 to 4 percent at the most World War II veterans on our flight. Okay. The largest now. Areas, Korean War and Vietnam is growing every year. Thinking about the idea of flights and aging veterans, in about 2014, Mark Fredlick, again, the one who started Honor Flight in The Villages, said, there's a lot of vets, unfortunately, that due to illness mobility issues are not able to be on a flight for almost 24 hour day, because it's a very long day.

[00:10:47] Mike Roth: Very long day.

[00:10:48] Duane Roemmich: So Honor Flight was the first one in the country, the hub, to come up with something we call a flightless flight. So what we do in a flightless flight is we pick up the veterans at a more decent hour in the morning at the American Legion post, like about 9 o'clock. A lot of people are there cheering them on.

And then we drive over to Eisenhower. And a lot of people over there waving flags and everything. And we basically have pretty much a half day of a virtual flight. honor flight, where there's a lot of video that shows them like being on an airplane, landing in Baltimore, going to each one of the memorials.

And in between that, when we would have like a lunch break at DC, we have a lunch break at Eisenhower. Because being in A facility here offers some advantages. We'll normally bring in a speaker from the military, and then we will also give out awards to each member of their branch of service.

We have a big green screen set up, so when they come in they'll get together by squads we call them, and they'll get photographs taken against the green screen. So what will happen is that green screen allows us to basically place them as if they were in Washington, D. C. So there's photographs at some point in time that we put together in a catalog and give out.

And they'll feel like they're right there. Normally, we have about, say, 60, 65 veterans and guardians, which I'll talk about in a bit, on a flight. And for flightless, it depends somewhere, probably 30, 35 veterans and guardians. So we have one to two of those per year.

[00:12:26] Mike Roth: How many veterans do you put on an average flight? 

[00:12:29] Duane Roemmich: Sixty five. On a flight, about. 

Sixty five veterans. 

 And then in addition to

[00:12:33] Mike Roth: and then you have your guardians. Okay. And what does it cost you to put a flight together? 

[00:12:38] Duane Roemmich: Probably about 80, 000. 

[00:12:40] Mike Roth: 80, 000 to charter the flight for the chart of the flight 

and the buses and for meals and 

[00:12:47] Duane Roemmich: all that kind of stuff.

So it's not inexpensive. Now we're more fortunate than a number of the hubs, let's say on the West Coast. Because when they do their trips, it's a three day trip. 

So their trips can cost, 400, 000. I'm very familiar with the hub in San Diego where I grew up. And so it's a three day trip and it's very expensive.

[00:13:07] Mike Roth: So if you have 60 veterans on a flight, how many guardians do you have? 

[00:13:11] Duane Roemmich: Same amount. Every veteran has a guardian. 

[00:13:13] Mike Roth: Oh, okay. 

[00:13:14] Duane Roemmich: And the role of the guardian is really, One, to make sure that the veteran is safe throughout the entire process. And the second is to befriend the veteran.

There's a lot of veterans, unfortunately, in the five county area that we draw from for veterans who don't have any family left or spouse has passed away. So this is one way for a veteran and a guardian to get to know each other. A veteran for many guardians, and a lot of my vets. It's been a lifelong relationship.

We get together for lunch, we get together for meetings, etc., etc., etc. And fortunately we've never lost a veteran on, on any of our flights. 

[00:13:53] Mike Roth: That's good. Let's take a break here and hear a Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis.

Should people who want to reduce their risk of Alzheimer's and improve their brain health take something like Centrum Silver, which is advertised as a brain supplement? 

[00:14:09] Dr. Craig Curtis: Another great question, Mike. So in a study published last year, they actually showed that people that took a multivitamin such as Centrum silver actually did slightly better on memory tests and this was a double blind placebo controlled study Sponsored by the alzheimer's association.

However, the alzheimer's association has come out and said we still don't have enough information to recommend a daily multivitamin. There was a study that showed no effect of a daily multivitamin a few years back that was also a double blind placebo controlled study. So we do have conflicting evidence on whether or not you should take a daily multivitamin.

[00:14:50] Mike Roth: So the question is, take a multivitamin if you have an unhealthy diet. If you have a healthy diet, get your vitamins from Natural foods. 

[00:14:57] Dr. Craig Curtis: Couldn't have said it better myself. 

[00:14:59] Mike Roth: Thanks very much, Dr. Curtis. 

[00:15:00] Dr. Craig Curtis: Thank you for having me, Mike. 

[00:15:01] Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis goal is to educate the Village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life.

To learn more, visit his website, craigcurtismd. com or call 352 500 5252 to attend a free seminar.

[00:15:17] Mike Roth: In your introduction I said that you were a squad leader, and many of our people don't know exactly what that means relative to Honor Flight. Can you fill them in, Duane? 

[00:15:28] Duane Roemmich: Sure. So like in the military we break our groups up into squads. So there's, tends to be six to seven veterans, six to seven guardians in each squad.

And each squad has a squad, squad leader. So the squad leader's responsible for that squad. Every time they're together. We have multiple meetings prior to the flight where people get a chance to know each other Better they can bring spouses or friends to get to know everybody else. So the squad leader sets up a luncheon the squad leader will Have a veteran also So each guardian will develop a biography of their veteran.

How that normally works out, we'll go to the veteran's home, talk with them, if they have a spouse, talk to the spouse, because a lot of times they'll have a maybe a little different perspective on things than the veteran would. And then they develop this biography. And so we have what we call a pre flight meeting.

That's the first time that the veterans And the guardians will meet each other. 

[00:16:27] Mike Roth: So that's the squad level. At the squad. 

[00:16:30] Duane Roemmich: First time the squad is introduced, the squad level. 

[00:16:32] Mike Roth: So it sounds like on an average flight, there might be 10 squad leaders. 

[00:16:35] Duane Roemmich: Somewhere in that range. Yes. And The squad leader the first time you're a squad leader, you pay 150.

And then if you do multiple squad leader, squad leader, if you do multiple guardian trips and eventually it goes off to zero squad leader, doesn't have to pay anything. And then we do very similar for the flight list. There's squads, squad leaders, guardians, and we have a lot of our, let's say, older veterans in The Villages who really would like to be a guardian, but they just don't want to be on a flight all day and all the stuff.

So there's no age limit at all to be a guardian on a flightless for the flights. You have to be no, no older than. for your first flight. And if you've done some in the past, you can do a little bit longer. Cadre of people who like to be guardians and we're always looking for new guardians to come in because people go out 

You know, we'd like to invite your listeners, family and friends to join us at our next Homecoming. What Homecoming is, when the veterans arrive back at the American Legion Post in Lady Lake. Typically, they arrive around 11:30 at night. We have entertainment starting at 930 at night. The next one would be October 2nd.

There's a lot of entertainment going on , bring your umbrella just in case it rains. If it pours, we will meet inside. We normally have two to four hundred people show up in the evening and it's really meaningful to the veterans when they start coming down, 466 and they see all these people out there waving flags and lights going on.

It's very, emotional to the veteran and it will be very emotional to you to come and join us.

[00:18:22] Mike Roth: What led you to get involved with honor flight?

[00:18:25] Duane Roemmich: Good question. I was not in the military my father was a 25 year world war II navy veteran chief petty officer. Okay, and He had like most world war II veterans a lot of stories about serving in the service now You I lived in San Diego for about 35 years, lived in Minnesota for 25 years, moved here to The Villages, had never heard of Honor Flight before I came to The Villages.

I've always done volunteer work as part of my life. And I heard about this organization. I said, wow, this sounds really great. It's kind of way to honor my father. And a lot of my relative family was in the military. And I had done fundraising and public speaking. in my past life a lot. And so that was relatively easy for me to do.

And that's why I got involved. And it's really, again, to honor all our veterans and to honor my father. 

[00:19:17] Mike Roth: And how do people get involved in auto flight who don't have the military background? 

[00:19:23] Duane Roemmich: You don't really have to probably 50 percent of the volunteers we have no military background.

Most have some kind of affinity for the military. Probably a friend or relative. So the easiest way, if you'd like to be a volunteer, if you'd like to be a guardian, If you'd like to be a veteran on a flight is to go to our website and it's www. villageshonorflight.org And on there, there's a lot of information about the history of Honor Flight, the history of Honor Flight Network.

There's applications you can fill out online as a veteran, as a guardian, or to be a volunteer. Now, volunteering A lot of opportunities for volunteers. We have a club in The Villages. So we have the hub that's responsible for all the flying. And we have a club that the members support all the flying and the flights.

We have about 800 members right now, the club. We meet on the first Thursday of every month at Rohan. From about 1. 30 till around 3 o'clock. We normally will have a speaker. We'll talk about activities that are coming up. We will talk about fundraising monies that we've received. And there's a volunteer committee.

So if you'd like to be interested, you can come to that meeting.

[00:20:43] Mike Roth: Again, the meeting is 

[00:20:44] Duane Roemmich: The first Thursday, every month, on Thursday, from 1. 30 to 3 o'clock, 

at Rohan, you can fill out an application, we have a volunteer committee then that will contact you, and they will send your interest area out to the various coordinators of volunteer activities.

[00:21:04] Mike Roth: Is there a number that people can call? 

[00:21:06] Duane Roemmich: It's, the phone number just will go to what we call an info line, and it's answered by a company that we hire, and then, That goes out to whoever would call. But I would suggest that people really go online. That's the best way to gather the information and to apply.

[00:21:25] Mike Roth: Repeat the website for our listeners. 

[00:21:27] Duane Roemmich: Okay, it's www. villageshonorflight.org and 

[00:21:33] Mike Roth: is there an email address that people can send anything to just go to the website 

[00:21:37] Duane Roemmich: Go to the website. Yes, and then someone will reach out to you 

[00:21:40] Mike Roth: Oh, that's and if you're in a hurry and it's the first Thursday of the month one o'clock at rohan 

[00:21:46] Duane Roemmich: Just come you don't yeah, and you don't have to be a villager to join the club and or attend the meetings 

[00:21:52] Mike Roth: Okay, so it's not a lifestyle club where you need a Villager's id correct It's an open meeting correct anyone in From Lady Lake, or Leesburg, or Wildwood, could just yes, 

yes.

See if they 

want to come, see what it's all about, and see if they want to volunteer to participate. How many years have you actually been involved with Honor Flight? 

[00:22:11] Duane Roemmich: Since I started about 2015. We're looking about almost nine years 

[00:22:15] Mike Roth: Okay, so if there's one piece of advice you could give to your younger self in 2015, nine years ago, what From something that you learned in Honor Flight since then, what advice would you give to Duane in 2011?

[00:22:28] Duane Roemmich: I would say appreciate your life and give back as much as you can because you get it back multiple times in rewards. We always say that, the motto of Honor Flight is it's all about the vets. No one has a salary. Everybody's a volunteer. So our reward, our payback is Smiles on the veterans faces, what they say about during the flights and afterwards that's our reward.

[00:22:55] Mike Roth: Is there anything else you'd like to add, Duane?

[00:22:57] Duane Roemmich: I think that's fine. 

[00:22:58] Mike Roth: Great.

Thanks for joining us on Open Forum in the Village.

[00:23:00] Mike Roth: You're welcome. Enjoyed it.

[00:23:02] Emily: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 

AM. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike @ rothvoice dot com. This is a shout out for supporters Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Paul Sorgen, and major supporter Dr. Craig Curtis at K2 in The Villages.

We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike @ rothvoice. com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Rothvoice 2024. All rights reserved.