New leader for Hudson Valley Honor Flight organization

The organization that flies veterans from Hudson Valley airports to Washington, D.C., on what are named Honor Flights has a new chairman.

After 10 years of service as chairman of the Board of Directors of Hudson Valley Honor Flight, Frank Kimler has stepped down but will remain active with Honor Flight’s national operation. Succeeding him is Louis J. Ingrassia Jr., who is the commissioner of Public Works and co-director of the Office of Emergency Management for the Town of Wallkill in Orange County.

During Kimler’s tenure, HVHF significantly expanded its coverage area and added flights carrying veterans on visits to the nation’s capital from Westchester County Airport.

HVHF provides once-in-a-lifetime group trips to Washington, D.C., where veterans are transported around the district by bus to visit war memorials, attend a dinner in their honor and then return home. Each veteran is escorted by a personal guardian and the HVHF flight team for the day-long trip. The trips are free for the veterans. Some of the veterans who take the trips have special needs and could not visit the war memorials were it not for the services HVHF provides.

HVHF is the Hudson Valley affiliate of the National Honor Flight Network, which consists of more than 100 independent nonprofit “hubs” across America. HVHF arranges for flights several times a year out of Stewart International Airport and Westchester County Airport. It serves veterans from Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, Westchester, Rockland and Sullivan.