Your Avon Man Selected for Honor Flight

Howie Appel, Vietnam Era Veteran of the USAF, was selected to join 55 fellow Veterans and their Guardians on a trip to Washington, DC

on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

 

He signed up for the Honor Flight 2 years ago and learned of his selection 3 weeks ago.  He attended an orientation last week. He will be leaving from Sanford Orlando Airport at 5:15 and arriving at BWI where 3 buses will take the "Heros" to the Washington Mall to visit 4 memorials and finally to the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.  He will be returning to Sanford at 10:30 Saturday evening.  The returning veterans will be greeted by a band and many, many flag wavers and banners.  The event promises to be one he will never forget.

 

Howie served on Active Duty from 1967-1971.  After Basic Training at Lackland AFB, TX he was assigned to Minot AFB, ND where he supported the 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Strategic Missile Wing in the Airman Assignments Section from 1967-1969.  From there he was assigned from 1969-1970 to the remote island of Shemya AFB, AK (in the Aleutian Islands) where he supported the Cobra Ball RC135C mission at Detachment 1 of the 6th Strategic Wing (SAC) in Mission Control as Operations NCO.   His final Active Duty assignment was at Grissom AFB, IN where he was assigned to an administrative role prior to separation from Active Duty.

 

After attending Northeastern University and receiving his BSBA in Human Resources Management in 1975, he joined the Massachusetts Air National Guard and was assigned to 267th Combat Communications Squadron and 253 Combat Communications Group Orderly Room in Wellesley, MA where he was promoted to TSgt (E-6).  He then transferred to the 85 Aerial Port Squadron at Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA.  He then moved to Orlando in 1986 and was assigned to Special Operations Command (SOCOM/SOCCENT) During Operation Desert Storm at MacDill AFB, Tampa where he was promoted to MSgt (E-7).  He was Honorably Discharged in 1992.  

 

Howie attended 2 "Welcome Home" events at Sanford in the past and signed up for the Honor Flight.  The program can be found at www.honorflightcentralflorida.org . Charlotte Skipper of the Lake Mary Life Magazine will be covering the event both as a Guardian and as a Reporter.  Charlotte has interviewed Howie for the next edition of the Magazine.  Look for his interview in the next Lake Mary Life Magazine