Top of the Morning, May 11, 2024

Jim Rossow, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·1 min read

May 11—When Fred Morrisette's name wasn't included in our story on area veterans headed to Washington, D.C., as part of Tuesday's Land of Lincoln Honor Flight No. 70, his wife, Sharon, had a friend reach out to her to make sure Fred was OK.

The good news: At 77, Fred is in tiptop shape.

"I'm 180 pounds and full of gristle," he said. "Most people would say it's between my ears."

Fred, who enlisted in the Army before graduating from Kankakee High in 1965, served in Vietnam until 1968. He and Sharon are Eastern Illinois grads who settled in rural Longview in 1985.

He applied for a seat on the Honor Flight in September and was OK'd in March. He hopes "to meet a few more friends and comrades from Illinois that maybe served at the same time, who I never got to know," he said.

As a bus driver for Peoria Charter, Fred took groups to Washington, D.C., three separate times, so he's familiar with the many stops the veterans will make Tuesday. Only this time, "it will be with a completely different group of people, some old-timers telling stories," he said.

The best part: "I won't have to drive the bus to Washington, D.C."