WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A planeload of World War 2 veterans will fly, at no cost to them, from Springfield to our nation's capital to see the national World War 2 memorial on Nov. 17. Hopefully it will be the first of many Ozarks Honor Flights. To show what that flight will be like, a reporter and videographer were on a recent Central Missouri Honor Flight.

Will Rogers said it: We can't all be heroes, so the rest of us get to stand on the curb and clap when they go by. That’s what Honor Flight is all about, every step and mile of the way to the World War 2 Memorial.

Honor Flight is only five years old and started out with small charters. It has grown to 85 hubs around the United States. This year alone, it has brought 10,000 veterans to Washington.

Planning, helping, guiding and traveling with this special salute becomes extremely personal. Ern Decamp's father was killed in the Battle of the Bulge.

“It’s nice to see soldiers who'd never been in D.C. before; to see what they saw was very meaningful,” said DeCamp, a former communications director for City Utilities of Springfield.

Very often, the memorial is the place where many make peace with themselves and what they had to do during the war.

“Lots of them have ghosts,” said Charlie Blake, president of Ozarks Honor Flight. “A woman told me the thing her husband feared most when he died was the things he did in World War 2 –- whether he would be accountable for them at the Pearly Gates.”

To get any Honor Flight off the ground and back requires platoons of coordinators, volunteers, callers, and lots of money to make it happen.

Honor Flight and its 85 affiliates comprise a non-profit network. The veterans fly free; the guardians and volunteers pay their way. An Honor Flight from Springfield will cost at least $50,000 but it’s worth it. It’s a-one-of-a-kind once-and-for-all thank you to the rapidly dwindling members of the Greatest Generation.

“A great deal of connections of the memorial is that this country recognizes what we've given, and it’s nice,” said Ralph Dobbs of Columbia, a survivor of the Battle of Iwo Jima.