The Syracuse University Student Veterans Organization will donate $1,000 on Thursday to Honor Flight Syracuse, a nonprofit organization that honors veterans by bringing them to various war memorials in Washington, D.C.

During the trip, veterans will visit their specific war memorial, namely the World War II Memorial, said Anthony Keach, president of the SU branch of Student Veterans of America. The organization held a two-monthlong raffle in the spring to raise money for trip expenses, he said.

Keach, who served eight years in the U.S. Army, first heard about Honor Flight Syracuse last summer. After meeting with Randy Flath and John Paddock Jr., the organization’s president and vice president, respectively, Keach said he realized he wanted to get involved. 

Honor Flight Syracuse is one of more than 100 chapters in the national Honor Flight Network, according to its website.

“I was just getting ready to take over the first semester presidency, and we had done other things previously,” Keach said. “I just felt like it’d be a nice thing to open up the fall semester.”

Student Veterans Organization officials were concerned it wouldn’t meet the group’s original goal of $500 to pay for the trip, said Margaret Clevenger, secretary of the SU Student Veterans Organization.

“We were like, ‘There’s no way we’re going to do this,’ but we all just kicked it into gear and we were able to come up with more than expected,” said Clevenger, a senior public relations and policy studies major.

Though Honor Flight Syracuse was created for all veterans, Keach said the emphasis is on those who served in World War II because they are the oldest generation of war veterans. There are more than 1.7 million living American World War II veterans, all older than 70 and many with deteriorating health, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The World War II Memorial didn’t open until 2004, Keach said, making it the first time that these veterans will visit the site. He said veterans will also visit Arlington National Cemetery and have time to reflect on their service.

“Surely there are probably people in there that are their friends or comrades that didn’t make it through the war, so it’s going to be a pretty touching experience for them,” he said.

Keach said for him and other members of the SU organization, helping veterans is important to them because many are veterans themselves.

“We’re veterans taking care of other veterans,” said Adrian Tennant, a junior in the School of Information Studies who served 20 years in the U.S. Army, including three tours in Iraq. “We’re taking care of our own.”

Keach said many student veterans like himself want to be involved in helping other veterans and the community after their time in the military.

“The World War II veterans were the first veterans to receive the original G.I. Bill that sent a lot of them to school,” he said. “They really helped out the nation. They definitely gave back to the nation, and now it’s our turn to give back to those veterans, to give back to the community.”

Published on September 11, 2013 at 2:15 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers