Antonio Anderson/Mining Journal The first veteran to exit the Honor Flight airplane embraces Upper Peninsula Honor Flight President Scott Knauf at the Delta County Airport Wednesday night. A colorguard of veterans starts the tunnel of loved ones awaiting the return of the veterans. The Bay de Noc Composite Squadron of air patrol cadets also helped to land the plane, and a brass band played the veterans in.

ESCANABA – A total of 166 women Armed Forces veterans visited Washington D.C., Wednesday on the largest all-women Honor Flight to ever be held. Veterans from the Vietnam War up to those who just recently retired took a trip to the Capitol to visit the historic war memorials, free of charge, as a way to honor their service and sacrifice to the country.

“This was one of the most wonderful experiences, it made me more proud than I ever have that I served our country,” said Lewella Fuhrmann, Army veteran from 1984 through 2006, after landing in Delta County Airport after her trip to the Capitol.

Most Honor Flights have veterans accompanied by guardians when they visit the Capitol, which normally sees 80 veterans and an equal number of guardians. Honor Flight XXVI saw no guardians, only veterans, and with it showed the large number of women veterans the U.P. has. None of the attendees had to pay for anything involved with the trip and Honor Flight attendees received T-shirts, sweatshirts, bracelets, food, a free hotel stay and more.

The Honor Flight is completely donation-based and receives no governmental funding. Each seat on the flight cost more than $1,000, and all that money was raised by volunteers. While at the Capitol, the veterans were applauded at the airport, met by politicians, and were even spoken to by a female sentinel at Arlington National Cemetery.

One veteran said the last time they flew before the Honor Flight was during their deployment in the Gulf War. Another veteran, Jenny Jessee-Beck, in basic training had a photo taken by an honor flight flag and finds it special that so many years later they attend the flight now. All of the veterans had stories to tell, with connections to the flight or stories from their own service.

“I was so young when I joined, they were not ready for a lot of women,” said Air Force veteran Joy Hines. “I ended up getting into a field that was only men … so number one, they didn’t want me there because I was a woman and number two, they didn’t want me there because they had all given a few years before they got into that field.”

During her service, Hines worked in a precision laboratory that calibrated all electrical and gauge equipment.

“We not only did the American forces but the British and the Canadian forces as well,” Hines said. “It was during Vietnam. We were very busy, but after the war the base I was on closed and I was a part of that.”

Hines found it to be a great honor to be included on the Honor Flight as she lives just over the state border in Wisconsin, just a few miles from Iron Mountain. Another veteran found it to be special as the Honor Flight connected her family together.

“Funny thing is, I flew with my dad on the Honor Flight two weeks ago and on this one I will be going on it with his wife, so it’s like a whole family thing,” said Army veteran Jill Weingarten. “I was on the Honor Flight earlier this month with my dad and I got to surprise him by singing the national anthem. My dad was in the army as well so I followed his role. He loved that and I still work at the Jacobetti Home for Veterans, and I serve with the American Legion, I am their national anthem vocalist.”

Recently retired veterans and those who served in wars past all joined together for this trip, and found solidarity with each other on how gender in the military has changed for the better. Some were restricted from participating in armed conflict and other unequal treatment.

“I was in the Army from 1970 through 1980. The whole rotten decade,” said veteran Kathy Andel. “I was a 91C, it’s equivalent to an LPN, a licensed practical nurse. I didn’t go to Vietnam, though I was in during the Vietnam Era, but I didn’t get over there because they were not taking women in my MOS. They were taking the male medics because they could send them into battle.”

This unequal treatment led to veterans feeling like their service was less than those unrestricted by gender rules. Yet this all-women Honor Flight opened the door for veterans who otherwise felt they could not go.

“I’ve been wanting to go on the Honor Flight for so long,” said Andel. “But I always felt that it should be the guys that actually went into Vietnam and everything, even though I was qualified to go because I was in during that era. But I thought, ‘Just let the guys that actually went go.'”

This Honor Flight provided an opportunity for women veterans to meet, reminisce and even see long-lost friends and battle buddies.

“One of my dearest girlfriends that I had in the army lives in a retirement home in D.C. an Armed Forces retirement home,” said Andel. “She is supposed to meet me over there. She stood in my wedding, and my daughter is named after her. We served together numerous times and we have kept in contact over these 50 some years.”

Every veteran on the Honor Flight has stories to tell and all feel the importance and impact the flight has on them, as well as the importance they had as individual women opening the doors for future women to have a more equal space in the military.

“This trip made me realize how important our service was,” said Air Force veteran Cynthia Brooks. “Even if we didn’t realize it at the time.”