Honor Flights

We will use this page to record all of the events of the Upstate Honor Flight project that involve Saint Mark veterans. Currently we have an article on planning the April 20th trip that contains highlights of the November 4, 2009 trip. We have an article on the Honor Dinner, with special guest Senator Lindsey Graham here. We have an article on the April 20, 2010 trip here. Finally, we have an article on the October 12, 2010 trip by Hugh and Ila Kittle.

You can download and print a copy of the Honor Flight Book here. This is a personal history of each of our veterans.

October 12th

Hugh and Ila Kittle Honor Flight

It was a priviledge and an honor to travel with Hugh and Ila Kittle on Oct. 12 on the Upstate Honor Flight. Both Hugh and Ila are WWII veterans, and they, along with about 85 other WWII vets, were honored on this trip. The one day flight on a chartered airline included stops at the WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the Korean Memorial, the memorial to Iwa Jima and finally, the Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetary. All these wonderful veterans received a hero's welcome when they arrived back at GSP, as you will see from Ila's reaction to the crowd!

The Saint Mark family has sent 16 veterans on the Honor Flights. What a wonderful project this has been! We do appreciate so much all of our veterans, and the time is now to honor those remaining from World War II.

Please enjoy the video and pictures of this wonderful trip.

Larry Waterman

Oct 12th Gallery

To view the slide show, click on the album below, click to open the first slide, select Play

All Albums » Hugh and Ila Kittle Honor Flight

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Flight

UPSTATE HONOR FLIGHT

On Tuesday April 20^th, twelve of Saint Mark’s WWII veterans joined the Upstate Honor Flight for a visit to the World War II Memorial in our nation’s capital. Beginning with an early morning charter flight, followed by a police escort across the District of Columbia they arrived at the Memorial at mid morning. During the day they visited other sites and ended with the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery. Returning home to GSP airport they were greeted by hundreds of family and well wishers. The crowd cheered each veteran as he or she came down the escalator. The welcome included an honor guard from the Young Marine’s and beauty queens. You can see dozens of pictures of the day here. The photo gallery below shows the return at the airport. The crowd shot was an hour and a half before arrival and it had grown to twice that size by arrival.

You can learn more about the Upstate Honor Flight projects here.

You can download and print a copy of the Honor Flight Book here. This is a personal history of each of our veterans.

To view the slide show, click on the album below, click to open the first slide, select Play

Flight Gallery

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Honor Flight Homecoming

(15 Photos)

Dinner

Senator Graham Headlines Covered Dish Honor Dinner

Wednesday March 31st was a banner day for St. Mark and our 28 WWII Veterans! The Saint Mark Center was decorated with a large American Flag and filled to capacity to honor our vets. Senator Lindsey Graham reminded us all that America would not be the same today if the veterans behind him and hundreds of thousands of others had not sacrificed or died for our freedom. He complemented the Saint Mark congregation for being able to support such a large project. Here is a short film of the Senators remarks and a dedication to the attending veterans. Just click anyplace on the TV or press the > button.

Everyone knows by now that we are sending many of these WWII veterans to Washington D.C. April 20^th on the Upstate Honor Flight to visit their own memorial. Learn more here. The St Mark Family has been very generous in this, donating $7,500 for this effort. We still have available our Project April 20 book of the stories and pictures of our veterans. You can obtain a copy, at our cost, from Debbie Davis at 864-653-3242 or You can download and print a copy of the Honor Flight Book here. This is a personal history of each of our veterans

Many thanks to the ACTS Sunday School class for hosting this event and providing dozens of volunteers to make it a success. Take a few minutes and enjoy the photos of this wonderful event.

To view the slide show, click on the album below, click to open the first slide, select Play

Dinner Gallery

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Veteran's Honor Dinner

(35 Photos)

Planning

Upstate Honor Flights Sends Vet's to DC

We are updating our Upstate Honor Flight project – it will be known as

“Project April 20”

On Thursday (Jan. 14) Jack and Debbie Davis and Larry Waterman delivered 16 applications and a check for $7,000 to the office of Congressman Bob Inglis in Greenville

We have 20 spots for our wonderful veterans for the next flight – Tuesday, April 20^th. What an exciting day that will be!

In last Sunday’s services, we showed everyone the book of the stories and pictures of St. Mark’s living WWII veterans. This wonderful book will be available for a donation to the project to anyone at St. Mark when it is completed sometime in February. We who have interviewed these heroes are in awe of what they did for us. You will be too, when you read their stories!

We are very aware that there are a number of deceased St. Mark WWII veterans. We do not want to leave them out of the book, so we are inviting children or spouses to submit their stories and a picture as well. We could not possibly find every WWII veteran from St. Mark, so we are asking for your help. For information, please call Larry or Debbie. We need these stories by Feb. 1^st.

Finally, several folks have asked if we can honor relatives who are not St. Mark members in this book. We will make several pages available for short memorial statements. Please include the branch of the service, rank and location(s) of service during WWII, and email to Debbie Davis at If you can send Debbie a picture in electronic format, we can include it as well.

The Acts Sunday School class would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support for Project April 20! This is a project whose time is now! We are so excited and gratified by our wonderful WWII veterans and their gracious participation in the project!

A little history about the Upstate Honor Flights. This is a non-profit group that charters a plane, making a one day round trip to D.C. These WWII heroes are given, at no cost to them, a fantastic tour, including a trip to their monument. You can see details about this trip at this website.

Each year there are fewer WWII veterans remaining. Somehow, their beautiful monument was not completed until 2004, so most have not been able to visit it. You may contribute to this effort by using the special envelope which you can find at entrances to the Sanctuary and also in the Family Life Center. Checks should be made out to Saint Mark, and all contributions go through the church and are tax deductible. We have already received over $7,000 which close to our goal of what it will cost to send our WWII veterans. We want to send our veterans on the next Upstate Honor Flight which will be in April, so please help put us over the top.

You may view videos of this great experience, including an interview with Dean Rogers, a Saint Mark member who went on the last Honor Flight on Nov 4^th. Click on these links to view: Fox 21 News report about the recent flight - See the arrival and interview with Dean Rogers of St. Mark – Dean says this about the trip and his WWII service: “It was unbelievable…and we veterans would do it all over again!” These videos show how meaningful this trip will be to our WWII heroes next spring!! Enjoy.