Alaska Airlines is offering Hawaii military veterans free flights to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials and monuments honoring their service and sacrifice.

The inaugural flights from Honolulu, sponsored in partnership with the Honor Flight Network, will begin the week of Veterans Day, Nov. 11, and additional flights are already in the works for 2023 and beyond.

The Honor Flight Network launched in 2005 with over 130 hubs around the country dedicated to flying veterans to the U.S. capital.

“Here we are, 17 years later, having flown over 250,000 veterans — that’s amazing,” said Matthew Shuman, president of Honor Flight’s board of directors, during a news conference today at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. “But we have a hole in our system that’s here for the islands of Hawaii. Just because veterans live here and are proud to call Hawaii home doesn’t mean that we should leave them out.”

Veterans living in Hawaii and other islands of the Pacific often have to travel greater distances than veterans on the mainland to access services and programs meant to serve them. Even so, island communities have deep traditions of uniformed service with multigenerational military families common across the Pacific.

“When we talk about serving every single veteran, making sure that not one veteran is left behind, it’s more than just words,” said Shuman. “We want every single veteran from Hawaii and the Pacific islands, American Samoa or any other island who served the United States in uniform. I don’t care what you look like, what your orientation — you served honorably, let us honorably serve you.”

Alaska Airlines and the Honor Flight Network are looking for veterans interested in going, as well as volunteers to help coordinate the flights and provide other support before and after the flights.

“These can be individuals, organizations or businesses,” said Honor Flight Network Chief Operating Officer Bobbie Bradley. “There are sponsorship opportunities; we are always accepting donations.”

Tim Thompson, Alaska Airlines director of public engagement, said the company has been working with the Honor Flight Program for 10 years and called the program a “truly community effort.”

“Alaska Airlines will be just one of many businesses that it will take to get these veterans to D.C. We’re going to need the help of volunteers, guardians, other businesses and individuals to create a vibrant hub here in Hawaii,” he said.

Will Brown, 82, is set to be among the first Hawaii veterans to make use of the program and hopes to see many others join him.

“In preparing to attended this press conference today, I opened my photo scrapbook from Vietnam,” he said. “I’ve long realized I wasn’t the only veteran who needs to remember to heal. This trip provides a safe, healthy means to begin to heal the emotional wounds buried for decades.”

Priority for the free flights is given to World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans. For more information on getting a flight, volunteering or supporting the program, visit honorflightnetwork.org.