More than 100 women veterans from Florida take part in all-female Honor Flight | Eastern NC Now

Sara Samora, writing for the Stars and Stripes.com is reporting:

WASHINGTON — It took almost three years to make happen, but 109 women veterans from Florida were finally able to visit the nation’s capital and see memorials that honor those who served.

“I think they've been overlooked for a long time, and we found on past Honor Flights, we've had very, very few females apply,” said Liza Diana Walters, Honor Flight Villages’ flight director. “We take at the most, a couple per flight, so I hope that this will raise awareness for the female vets and encourage them to come on Honor Flights.”

The Honor Flight network is an organization that flies veterans to visit memorials in Washington, D.C., free of charge. For Honor Flight Villages in Florida, it was the first time the organization flew an all-female Honor Flight.

Walters said the Tri-County Women Veterans approached Honor Flight Villages in 2019 to ask whether the group would organize an all-female flight.

The group had been scheduled to visit in May 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic caused the Honor Flights to shut down for two years. Now that the all-female flight has come to fruition, Walters said they hope it will draw attention to the contributions of women veterans.

On the Honor Flight’s first day in Washington, the veterans toured the Navy Museum as their first stop. Later, they visited the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

Connie Plotkin, 74, joined the Air Force in 1969 as a medical technician. She served five years and attended nursing school. She then commissioned into the Army Reserve in 1984 and retired in 2008.

“I had to get out because I was of age,” Plotkin said of her time in the service. “I was 60, so they made me get out. But I love my military career. It was the highlight of my life.”