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August 6, 2025 • 12 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Thirteen ten double Iba Madison in the morning, a real
exciting to exciting time a year. Of course, as we
moved into late summer into fall, another round of Badg
Your Honor Flights Fall flights have been announced September sixth,
October eleventh, and there's also another third one in there
as well. And as soon as I oh November eighth,

(00:34):
as soon as I started mentioning that I screen to refreshed,
so I got three three flights announced. Coming up joining
us this morning is the chairperson with Badger Honor Flight,
mister Brian's nigeler Brian.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
How you been doing pretty good, Sean. Thanks for the
time today, thanks.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
For joining us, and thank you for the great work
that you guys do. I had the opportunity a number
of years ago to travel with some veterans out to
DC with you guys as your guest at at Badge
Your Honor Flight, and what an amazing day it is.
I'm going to talk a little bit with you about
what the experience is all about and really the importance

(01:09):
of doing this. But real quick before we get started,
the website Badger Honor Flight dot org. That's Badger Honor
Flight dot org. We talk about what a great opportunity
it is. But there's a really important element to make
this all work, which is veterans. And you are encouraging
veterans right now who haven't taken this opportunity. You really
want to get them signed up, don't you.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yes, we do. We are still looking for World War
Two Korean and Vietnam veterans and also terminally ill veterans
from any conflict that we've seen an increase in those
types of veterans. But yeah, we're actively looking for veterans
from World War Two through Vietnam to get on our
waitlist and going on trip with us.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
And that's also something I know for a lot of folks,
whether they're personally a veteran or if they've got a
family member, parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives that served, it's
really important as well, you know, for them to let
them know about this. Also, I think a lot of
folks learn about Badger Honor Flight and learn about more
specifically the opportunity to join in at bad Your Honor

(02:13):
Flight through relatives, you know, family friends, those type of areas.
People need to get this information out, don't they, Yes,
they do, And that information of course bad your Honor
flights dot org. That's bad your Honor flight dot org
and Brian, I know, I mean, make it real easy
right right online. There's there's an application folks can can
fill out. Let's talk about then, about the event itself

(02:34):
and and you do a number of these each year.
You guys put together a fantastic schedule with Badge on
a flight to get the men and women who served
out to see the memorials in d C. Let's talk
a little bit about that day and about that that
schedule of event that goes on that day. This is
something that's obviously hugely important to the vets. It's really

(02:54):
rewarding to folks that get a chance travel, but also
for people here in Madison, there's some great opportunities for
them as well to participate, aren't there.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yes, sir, we're we're always so we're always looking as
we're as we talked about, looking for veterans to get
signed up, but we're also looking for veterans to help
I'm sorry, volunteers to help give these veterans a day
that they will never forget. It's we always say the
day they will remember forever. And uh, we're also looking

(03:23):
for like volunteers help with admin, medical team members volunteers
there and also to help out with the send off
and welcome home, which are important parts of that of
that flight day.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
You mentioned that send off and that welcome home and
and to me, that's you know, it's there's there's so
many things that that I personally remember experiencing that day.
I think one of those biggest surprises is that and
I don't want to ruin too much, but the arrival
back after a very long day, and you think that
these that these uh servicemen and women, these these uh,

(03:59):
these these veterans would be would be exhausted. You see
you see them light up as you get back to
Dane County Regional and the and there's that party going on.
There's a whole it's almost like that second or third win.
That's it's it's such a fun thing, not just for
the veterans but for folks who who want to come
out and think. But also you got young folks. What
an opportunity that is for them as well to experience.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, it is, and you're right about how it is
a long day and.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
The emotions, the enthusiasm, it just keeps building all day,
several folks will take a quick nap on the plane
ride home, so that kind of recharges the batteries there.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
But when you get to that welcome home and you
hear that band and it's it's deafening up there at
the top of the stairs, and you look down and
you see four to five thousand people in the Dane
County Airport there to welcome the veterans, and you're right,
it's it's it's family members that know them. But I
also have seen more and more folks in our general

(05:01):
public that are bringing their family out with their young kids,
but they can see what this is all about and learn,
you know, meet these men and women who served, whether
it was overseas or you know, the state side. And yeah,
we're we're seeing an increase in that, and we have
plenty of activities for the young kids as well.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I remember my son still remembers, I should be more specific,
he was very young when I went, and he still
talks about it had quite an impact on him as well.
That that specifically the welcome home ceremony. Let's kind of
walk through the day then, so obviously there's the big
send off the vets arrive at Dane County Regional fly out.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
To d C.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Once folks get to d C, let's talk a little
bit about what goes on the day of that that
honor flight.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, when we get to d C, there will be
a small reception side the airport, which which is the
first of several tho it and that's mainly made up
of folks trying to catch their flights. But folks will stop,
take a moment and form a line for the veterans
to go. Buy a plot them, think them, shake their hands,

(06:09):
give hugs. And then from there we'll go either to
Arlington National Cemetery for changing the Guard, or we'll go
to the Marine Corps Memorial and we'll do our group
photo there. We'll have lunch after we're all done there.

(06:30):
Then we'll head on over to Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean Memorials,
which is where a great majority of our veterans now
are from. We'll spend time there. There's plenty of time
to visit all three of those memorials, and then we'll
go over to World War Two Memorial for a brief visit,

(06:50):
and then depending on how the day goes, we may
go to the FDR. Martin Luther King Memorials, or we'll
go to the Pentagon ninet eleven Memorial and we typically
will end the day at the US Air Force Memorial
which is just up the hill from the Pentagon, and
then we'll get back to the airport, grab some supper,

(07:12):
get on the plane, and come on home, and uh,
we'll get them back to their families at night as
part of that welcome home.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
And I think a lot of people are surprised to
learn this, but for a lot of these a lot
of these veterans, this is their first time seeing these
these monuments. Seeing these memorials, you think about, you know,
for for many of us, we see, you know, we're
familiar with these. A lot of us have maybe for
school trips or other opportunities ben to DC and and
what that means to us when you're a veteran, and

(07:42):
from what I what I witnessed, there's obviously a special
level of appreciation. There's a special level of odd to
see them seeing these memorials for the first time. A
lot of these men and women have have never had
this opportunity before.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
That's correct. But I will also one of the things
I've noticed more recently is that when you talk to
a veteran, they have seen, you know, they say they
have gone to d C, so I don't need to go,
or I've been to the I've been to the wall, okay,
but going there with your fellow veterans it's a whole

(08:18):
different experience. And we've talked that several who were a
little hasband about going and their family said, yeah, you
should probably do that. We've heard that they're very thankful
for that because to share that moment with someone else
who was in a similar position as them, or that
the experiences someone to talk to about it. So we're

(08:42):
starting to see more of those type veterans who have said,
you know what, I'm going to go and I'm going
to go with my son, or I'm going to go
with my daughter and it's a totally different experience than
maybe when they were there before.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Well, that is that is an interesting perspective for sure.
As we talked this morning with Brian Ziegler, of course,
Brian comes to us from Badger Honor Flight more online,
Badger honor flight dot org. That's Badger Honor Flight dot org.
A v I P kind of day and uh, Brian,
we started our conversation talking about recruitment, and you make
the application process very easy for folks who head on

(09:16):
over to the website Badger Honorflight dot org. One thing
that people need to remember is is there's no cost
to the UH the servicemen and women that are that
are traveling with the Badger Honor Flight. It's it's something
that I know you guys work very very hard to
make sure that that cost or other limitations are not
a barrier. You guys do a lot of work to

(09:38):
make sure that these folks are able able to make
this trip.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yes, we've we've been very fortunate that the generosity of
the public that is supporting us in our mission to
give these men and women UH their trip of a lifetime.
We want to say thank you to them, and we
want to say thank you to everybody helps get the
message out there. And that's that's what we got to
keep doing, is continue this mission forward.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
And if if you know somebody or you are somebody
who've even thought about about it, it's really an important
thing to get signed up again the website Badger Honor
Flight dot org. That's Badger Honor Flight dot org. Of
course I'm three scheduled for this fall, and then of
course I know you guys will start nice and early
with spring spring Badger Honor Flights as well real quick.

(10:28):
Of course mentioned the recruitment and the importance of getting
those applications in and folks getting on the list real quick. Obviously,
there's there is cost to this, and I know that
there's a lot of folks that are very generous here
listening to the station. I know there's a lot of
business owners and leaders as well. I mentioned that website
Badger honorflight dot org. You do make it very easy

(10:48):
as well for folks that want to contribute, that want
to do their their small part to say thank you
right on the website. You guys have a real convenient
area there to make a donation. You also have an
opportunity for folks to join the mailing list as well,
don't you.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
You Yes, we do. And the other part is that
we do have sponsorship opportunities for the fall flights and
you don't have to you know, while we would love
for someone to step forward and be pay for the
entire flight, there are smaller components of our flight costs
that every bit counts, and so we'll be publishing those

(11:22):
on our Facebook page. Real soon. You could sponsor to lunch,
you could sponsor the buses in DC. So there's different
components and we do everything possible to recognize everybody that does.
The sponsorships are the donation, so every big counts and

(11:42):
we greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
And again all that information available. Bad your honor flight
dot org. That's bad your honor flight dot org. Brian
Ziegler with bad your honer flight. Thank you so much
for all your great work, thank you for your service,
and thank you for joining us this morning.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Brian, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Sean news comes your way next right here on thirteen
ten w I B a
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