'Honor Flight' to Be Shown at the Hett on Veterans’ Day
Film Follows Discussion by Local Veteran Participants
(LEBANON, Ill., November 4, 2015) - The award-winning documentary “Honor Flight,”
and a discussion by veterans who have participated in it, will be among Veterans’
Day activities at McKendree University on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
“Honor Flight” tells the true story of four World War II veterans and a Midwest community
that came together to give them the trip of a lifetime—to visit the Washington, D.C.
war memorials dedicated in their honor. The discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed
by a 7 p.m. screening at the Hettenhausen Center for the Arts on campus. Admission
is free.
The showing of the documentary will conclude Veterans’ Day activities during Military
Appreciation Week at McKendree. Earlier in the week, 958 American flags will be placed
on the campus quadby student members of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies
and Rotaract, to honor Civil War soldiers of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment
117th, also known as the “McKendree Regiment.”
On Nov. 11 at noon, a 50-minute presentation about “Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan
at McKendree University” will be given by Dr. Duane Olson, professor of religious
studies, joined by students Joseph Gebke and Jake Pratt, who have served in the military.
The talk will be held in room 222 of Piper Academic Center.
At 4 p.m., a sesquicentennial Civil War Memorial Trail will honor the 150th anniversary of the muster-out of the 117th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1865. It will begin at the flagpole on the
quad and proceed to the McKendree Regiment monument in front of Bothwell Chapel. A
ceremony will include a regiment roll call; historical facts; patriotic music; and
the recitation of a letter written by Col. Risdon Moore, a solder in the regiment.
Civil War artifacts will be on display in the museum inside the chapel.
The public is welcome to attend all Veterans’ Day events on campus. For more information,
visit mckendree.edu/military.
-McK-
