We’ve known it was coming for months, but the finality of it is closer than ever. The last Central Missouri Honor Flight is scheduled for Monday. It will be the 71st and final flight. Over $6 million in donations have helped fund the venture, with the first flight in May 2009.

Seventy veterans will be the last people to be flown by Central Missouri Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. to see memorials dedicated to their military service and then return to Columbia after spending a day in D.C. The flight departs from Columbia at 1:45 a.m. Monday, and the veterans will return to the Columbia Courtyard by Marriott at 9:30 p.m.,

Over 5600 vets have been flown to DC by the Honor Flight. A slowing of applications is cited as the reasons behind the stoppage.