TRAER – Since 2011, over 3,000 Iowa veterans have been honored for their service with a special trip to Washington, D.C., courtesy of Sullivan-Hartogh-Davis Cedar Valley Honor Flight. In 2010, what began as a simple conversation between local media mogul Jim Coloff and Black Hawk County Supervisor Craig White soon became an effort to establish Waterloo, Iowa as an Honor Flight hub. Less than a year later, the first group of eastern Iowa veterans arrived in Washington, D.C. for a once-in-a-lifetime experience to visit the national monuments and memorials erected in their honor.

In “The Cedar Valley Honor Flight Story: A Photographic Journey,” a new book by Michael Whittlesey – former editor and publisher of La Porte City’s The Progress Review – go behind the scenes and learn how a dedicated group of volunteers were able to accomplish this feat and the work that must be done before an Honor Flight can lift off the ground.

Share the Honor Flight experience as you travel with Iowa veterans to our nation’s capital and visit iconic locations that are such an important part of our nation’s history. Filled with hundreds of photographs presented in the order of a typical Honor Flight day, see and feel what the Iowa veterans have experienced over the course of 28 Honor Flights taken during the past 13 years. Each stop along the Cedar Valley Honor Flight itinerary is filled with incredible images and information about the monuments and memorials visited.

Join Whittlesey at the Traer Public Library on Wednesday, Sept.11 at 2 p.m. for a program featuring some of the book’s most powerful images and experience what these trips mean to local veterans.

Copies of  “The Cedar Valley Honor Flight Story” will be available for purchase following the program.