“I just want you to know I am finally home,”HonorAir Knoxville veteran.
From 2007 until the program was sunset in April of this year, HonorAir Knoxville conducted 38 chartered flights, escorting more than 4,700 World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans to Washington, D.C. On each flight, 130-150 East Tennessee veterans, accompanied by volunteer escorts and the HonorAir Knoxville Team, were honored with a one-day, all-expenses-paid trip to visit the nation’s war memorials and Arlington National Cemetery.
It was the experience of Knoxville native Eddie Mannis as a volunteer escort on a North Carolina honor flight that inspired the vision that would become HonorAir Knoxville. The treasured two-decade program is responsible for transformative experiences for thousands of East Tennessee military service men and women.
Son of a Korean War veteran, stepson of a WWII veteran and nephew of a WWII Purple Heart recipient, Mannis came back from that flight motivated to create an HonorAir program for his community, like his friend Jeff Miller had done in Hendersonville to honor his father, a WWII veteran who had generously donated toward the National WWII Memorial, but never saw its completion.
Miller had invited Mannis to escort Western North Carolina veterans to D.C. “We flew out of Asheville in the spring of 2007,” Mannis says. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I was so moved by the stories. I traveled as an escort because I wanted to be entrenched in the experience. I was responsible for three veterans … one was in the Bataan Death March … and realized we couldn’t begin to fathom the magnitude of WWII without hearing stories from these veterans who had been there.”
“After I got back, I started really digging in to try and understand the true sacrifice WWII veterans made. I recruited some folks with military backgrounds who could speak the military language and put together an all-volunteer team pretty quickly.” The core leadership, logistics and support team of 15 included a flight crew medical team. Organizational efforts began in June, 2007, securing nonprofit status and a Knoxville charter through Miller’s initiative, HonorAir, and then recruiting East Tennessee veterans for the first flight.
“After that flight in the fall of 2007, people shared their stories with friends and family, and it began to take off. But we also had to count pennies,” he explains. From Flight 1 to Flight 38, Prestige Cleaners, the dry cleaning company Mannis founded in 1985, and Covenant Health, one of the region’s premier healthcare networks, were the principal partners supporting the flights, but fundraising was ongoing. “We needed $50,000 to $60,000 for every flight back then. We raised enough for our second flight in the spring of 2008. After that, it just snow-balled. We’d return from each flight and start fundraising for the next. By the end of the program, cost per flight had risen to over $125,000.”
With the average age of WWII veterans being late 70s to early 80s, guidelines prioritized boots-on-the-ground veterans from Knox, Blount and Anderson counties. “A few years later, we added Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, and expanded down to Chattanooga, over to Crossville and up to Mountain City. Two all-female veteran flights included some of the Calutron Girls who worked on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. By our last flight, including two virtual flights for those unable to travel, we’d worked through all boots-on-the-ground vets and added other veterans, whatever their role, who had applied.”
Each flight would land at Ronald Reagan Washington National, and an announcement that an honor flight of veterans was at the gate would bring passengers to stop, shake hands and thank them. Four motor coaches would take the group to visit the memorials (WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Marine Corps (Iwo Jima), Air Force, Navy and Military Women’s for all-female flights) and Arlington Cemetery.
During a highlight of the return flight, Mail Call surprised each veteran with an envelope full of cards, personal notes and letters from family members and friends, along with East Tennessee schoolchildren, community groups and veteran organizations thanking them for their service. One benefit of Mail Call was the connection with school groups, who also filled and decorated snack bags for each flight. Sometimes veterans would speak to their classes. Others would write back to their students, building bonds—even attending their athletic events.
“What was so affirming to me,” Mannis says, “was the recognition for these veterans—their stories, wisdom, knowledge and experience. What they have to say about service and sacrifice to younger generations is irreplaceable.”
One Mail Call, he continues, was especially memorable. “We had to postpone an all-female flight several times in 2020 because of COVID, but we’d already notified family members to write their letters for Mail Call. We were finally able to take that flight in 2021, and we’d saved all the solicited notes and letters from 2020. On that flight was a veteran whose husband had passed away in the interim. She was overwhelmed when she opened a letter from him. He was gone, but that letter was full of thoughts and feelings about her service he’d never shared with her.” One last love letter about such an important chapter in her life that she might never have known.
Every “Welcome Home” at McGhee Tyson brought out bands, bunting, balloons, handmade signs and flags, with families, friends, honor guards and military, school and scout groups. Often, as many as a thousand East Tennessee patriots showed up to wave flags, cheer and shake hands as the returning veterans made their way slowly through a crowded community-created heroes’ homecoming in a sea of red, white and blue.
These and so many other moments made these flights life-changing. In a letter to Mannis, one vet wrote, “I came back home after the trip, and it was so much different from my return from the war when I just got off the bus to nothing, no fanfare … just went to work the next day.”
“That homecoming at the end of each flight,” Mannis says, “that all deserved and most never received, was just tremendous for them.”
“We heard story after story from veterans emotionally challenged by what they’d experienced … Vietnam vets who didn’t think they could actually go up to the Wall to read the names, but then they did.” Mannis explains. A wife of one Vietnam vet called Mannis to say, “I just want you to know that the veteran who left home that morning for the flight came back a different person that night after the flight.”
“It was for that reason spouses didn’t come on flights.” Mannis says. “We didn’t want veterans to miss the interaction with those who understood what they’d gone through.”
The focus was always the veterans. “We never wanted to commercialize it and neither did our primary sponsors. It was always important to me that we were 100% volunteer-driven so that every dollar we raised went toward a veteran going to D.C. Once word got out, we were so blessed to have broad-based contributions from our community. From individuals, like the family of a veteran who requested donations for us in lieu of flowers at the funeral, or families of veterans who donated money out of estates. Sometimes a local business sponsored a specific flight. We had so many community groups and individuals donating in honor of loved ones to help keep the flights going.” An unexpected donation from The Smoky Mountain Air Show Partnership proceeds, coming halfway through the 20-year span of service, allowed the team to further increase the number of veterans they could serve.
Mannis praises community partners who helped make it happen. “The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (MKAA) has been an amazing partner for us, with just the logistics of managing the sudden influx of hundreds of cars coming into the parking garage and a thousand people pouring into the terminal.” MKAA comped parking for everyone attending the homecomings and staffed up for security, maintenance and housekeeping. “Without the support of MKAA and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), whose staff was also amazing, it would have been so tough to pull off 38 flights. We can never thank them enough.”
Mannis names other partners he’s grateful for, like Ken Knight at Crowne Plaza who comped rooms for veterans who needed them and Premier Transportation, who ran a bus to Crossville to pick up veterans on early mornings and take them home late at night. And, the hundreds of volunteer escorts who paid their own flights and, after their orientation, became responsible for two to three veterans, helping them with details before flights and escorting them during their visit.
“When I look back now, I wonder how we did it. But we heard from many folks we were ‘one of the most well-oiled machines they’d ever seen.’” A forever-changed Mannis says, “There was never one flight I didn’t come back incredibly moved by what we witnessed from the impact of the program, but also the sacrifices those veterans made that largely had gone unrecognized.”
Mannis shares a final thought, “I always said we will know when it’s time for the last flight, but it’s been tough for this team to sunset this program. You’re talking about a group of 15 people who served selflessly together for two decades and became a family. Granted it started as my vision, but my deepest gratitude will always go to that dedicated HonorAir Knoxville Team: the partners, local organizations and people who gave time and resources; and to our community and the steadfast devotion of thousands of East Tennesseans who lifted up our veterans every single flight for 20 years. They are the ones who made it possible.”
“Even now, I get so emotional from the impact of HonorAir Knoxville, but also the sacrifice those veterans made that largely went unnoticed.”—Eddie Mannis.
“Our leadership team stayed intact for 20 years. It’s a privilege to recognize this remarkable crew who fulfilled HonorAir Knoxville’s promise so honorably.”—Eddie Mannis.