As Trump rally coincides with veterans' celebration, New Hanover GOP sees 'massive benefit'

A welcome home celebration for veterans Saturday will now coincide with a rally for Donald Trump.

Honor Flight of the Cape Fear Area is hosting its 2024 event for veterans at the Wilmington International Airport on Saturday.

However, this year's event overlaps with a recently announced rally to be held by Trump, former president and 2024 presidential nominee, on the same grounds.

"We've been on the calendar for almost a year now," Ruth Smith, founder, president and trip leader of Honor Flight of the Cape Fear Area said. "It's really funny, you know, each spring we try to find a date that isn't Easter, Passover, Azalea Festival, or graduation, so it doesn't leave us a lot of dates."

On Saturday, 75 veterans will fly alongside 75 guardians to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials and monuments located in the nation's capital. The veterans will return to Wilmington International Airport that evening, with the welcome home celebration expected to begin at 9:30 p.m. Several hundred community members are expected to gather, bring signs and greet the returning veterans.

"The thing (is), when you ask the veterans after the day, what was the most meaningful to them, most of them will say the welcome home and being greeted by kids," Smith said. "For many of them, particularly the Vietnam era veterans, this is their first ever welcome home."

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Smith said her organization purposefully chooses a weekend date for the honor flight so that school-aged children are able to attend. For her, the focus is "making sure the value is there for our veterans and making sure they are honored."

The Trump campaign announced earlier this week that the presidential candidate will be hosting a rally at the Aero Center, located at the Wilmington International Airport, Saturday evening. Doors at the Aero Center will open at 3, with the event beginning at 7 p.m. Thousands attended a similar rally held at the Aero Center in 2022.

Nevin Carr, chair of the New Hanover County Republican Party, said the New Hanover County GOP is expected to have approximately 60 volunteers present at Saturday's Trump rally.

Carr referred to the coincidence of the honor flight and the rally as a "massive benefit," adding that in his view, "the movement that supports the Republican party is the same movement that supports our men and women in uniform."

He addressed potential benefits of the event overlap while also noting the simultaneous timing of these events may exacerbate traffic congestion in the area.

"We just encourage those coming out to support the veterans to be patient and make the best of it," Smith said. "Get there a little earlier...we will make sure that our veterans...will be honored in the manner that (they are) deserving of."

Smith said 100% of her focus is on "making sure the value is there for our veterans and making sure they are honored."

Applications for veterans who wish to participate in the 2025 honor flight will open this year in the late summer. For more on Honor Flight of the Cape Fear Area events, veterans can add their names to the list on the organization's webpage.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Honor Flight and Trump rally in Wilmington, NC on Saturday at airport