Politics

Congress enacts law to ease HonorAir passenger loading

World War II veterans board the 300th HonorAir flight from Greenville, S.C., in September 2013.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 31, 2014

HonorAir, the World War II veteran-honoring program that started in Hendersonville 10 years ago, has received national recognition again, this time in the form of a new law directing the federal government to ease passenger loading at airports.

House Resolution 4812, the Honor Flight Act, directs the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration in collaboration with the Honor Flight Network or other not-for-profit organization that honors veterans to create "a process for providing expedited and dignified passenger screening services for veterans traveling" on charters operated by the Honor Flight Network or other not-for-profit organization that hosts veterans on trips to visit war memorials built in their honor. The sponsor was Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana, a state that has a large and active Honor Flight effort.
"It started kind of a while back," said Jeff Miller, who cofounded HonorAir and organized the first charter flights. "On these charters they made us go through all the same screening processes that a normal commercial flight would and it always frustrated me because one ground crew would do it one and another would do it another way."
Miller thought some of the security measures could be eased.
"Especially if they didn't have a chair or something nearby it was very risky for these men and women to take off their shoes," he said. "I didn't want to micromanage because they were all very good to us."
Without prompting from HonorAir, the process did get streamlined.
"At one point the head of TSA saw one of our groups going through and saw all the hassles they were going through and he went back and wrote and a whole different directive for how to do that and sent it out," Miller said.
Even so, Honor Flight Network leaders weren't sure if the directive would hold from one administration to the next.
Jeff Miller"I know it affected Reagan National because when we went through all we had to do was show our names on a lanyard and they would check it off on the manifest," he said. "This is something that this gentleman got behind on his own. He wanted to make sure if the TSA changed at some point this would continue to be handled so they would come up with a system of screening that didn't put any of the veterans at risk, and especially if they were elderly or disabled. It let's you keep your shoes on, keep your jackets on. It was made to make sure that we got to do this in this fashion from now on."

The passengers still go through pre-screening and the easing of some security measures won't allow late substitutions or unscreened veterans to board, no matter their age. "They're not going to let a guy wearing three jackets and a backpack get on the plane," he said.

Given that the youngest surviving World War II veterans are approaching 90, many use a wheelchair or need a helping hand or shoulder for balance. When HonorAir started 10 years ago, volunteer guardians were assigned to three or four veterans. Now it's one guardian per veteran.
The House Resolution had been stalled by partisan gridlock until the Senate passed it on Dec. 9. President Obama signed it on Dec. 16.
Miller said elderly World War II veterans are still signing up. The 400th charter flight is scheduled for this coming spring, and Honor Flight hub directors across America are recalling a corps of volunteers, paramedics and logistics coordinators for the spring-through-summer HonorAir season.
"It's amazing how strong it's going right now," Miller said. "A lot of groups have transitioned into Korea and Vietnam but what we found is this real surge of World War II veterans (signing up). Their friends have gone and they're realizing this is their time to go."