Four female military veterans from Naperville will be among those taking the first all-women Honor Flight on Oct. 6.
Known as the Operation HerStory All-Woman Veteran Flight, participants will fly from Chicago to Washington, D.C., for an all-expenses-paid, daylong trip to visit several war memorials and places of interest, including the Women’s Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall.
Honor Flights are a way to honor military veterans for their service. On this trip, the women range in age from their mid-60s to 104, come from communities all over Illinois and served during WWII or the Korean or Vietnam wars.
Ginny Narsete, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant from Lisle, spearheaded the project, which had to be postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m just so glad we will finally be able to do this,” said Narsete, a Vietnam veteran and former chief of staff for the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
“So many women came out of the woodwork for this,” she said. “They were coming from everywhere and excited for the trip. Most Honor Flights, it’s just one woman or none.”
According to state data, about 7,200 female veterans live in Illinois and served in the military between 1940 and 1975. However, fewer than 3% have gone to the nation’s capital on an Honor Flight.
“It’s nobody’s fault, but some women from the earlier wars do not think they’re worthy (of an Honor Flight), they will relinquish their seat to a man,” Narsete said.
But these women were “trailblazers” and deserve to be honored, she said. “They kept us going,” Narsete said.
One of them on the Oct. 6 trip is Air Force veteran Kay Akins, of Naperville.
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“I’m humbled by it,” said Akins, a staff sergeant during the Vietnam War who was stationed in the U.S. and Taiwan. “Did I ever do anything to deserve this? I don’t know, but I think it will be nice to honor (the other women’s) service and to hear their stories and see how we’ve progressed.
“If somebody thinks of a woman vet, they think she was a nurse,” she said. “But now you may think she’s a pilot — that wouldn’t have been the case 50 years ago. We’ve come a long way.”
Prior to the Oct. 6 flight, Honor Flight participants have been invited to a private, pre-flight reception Sunday, Sept. 26, at the Naperville VFW Hall, 908 Jackson Ave.
Narsete said it will be more of a meet-and-greet where they can “just be like sisters. Because that’s what we are: we are sisters.”
Sunday’s event will include a red carpet arrival in which the women will be greeted by cheering, flag-waving supporters and attend a Quilts of Valor ceremony during which commemorative quilts and service pins will be presented.
In addition to some of the women participating in the Honor Flight, others in attendance at the reception will be:
Retired Army Col. Jennifer N. Pritzker, who is the founder/chair of the Pritzker Military Foundation and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library;
Retired Air Force Major Gen. John Borling, a fighter pilot who was imprisoned the late Sen. John McCain during the Vietnam War;
Retired Air Force Major Gen. Peter K. Sullivan, a veteran of the Vietnam and Gulf wars and recipient of the Legion of Merit;
Brigadier Gen. Patricia Wallace, deputy commanding general of the 88th Readiness Division of the U.S. Army Reserves.