FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Belmont, NY – Saturday, July 19,
2025, marked a special occasion for 40 participants of the Allegany County
Dwyer program for Veterans. Service members came together to experience a
Veteran only flight experience on Whiskey-7, a C-47 delivered to the US Army
Air Forces in 1943. Participants were invited to bring their families to tour
the plane between flights and engage with volunteers from the National Warplane
Museum’s crew to learn more about Whiskey-7’s origin and status of restoration.
Whiskey-7 was the lead plane of
the second wave of paratroopers on D-Day and went on to participate in other
operations during World War II. This
plane was donated in 2005 to the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, NY, where
it has been under restoration to return it to its condition as of June 6, 1944.
As each flight landed, family
members and volunteers eagerly welcomed home Veterans of Allegany County. Photos and videos from the event have been
published on the program’s Facebook page, @Salute to Allegany County Veterans. Program
volunteers would like to thank Will Shutt, Airport Manager of the Wellsville
Municipal Airport, for his warm welcome of our service-members and the Whiskey-7
crew.
Honoring the memory of PFC Joseph
P. Dwyer and his legacy of service, the mission of our PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Peer
Support Program is to empower Veterans to reconnect with one another. These
connections create strong bonds which foster hope and resilience as they
transition from military to Veteran life – and there is NO timeline for
transition. The Allegany County program is co-directed by H. Robert Budinger
III and Mallory Short. The program is run by volunteers who all, veteran or
civilian, gratefully welcome the opportunity to be of service for our Veterans.
Our next event is a picnic in
partnership with the Allegany County Veterans Organization (previously known as
the Vietnam Veterans Organization) in August at the group’s camp in
Willing. We request to have Veterans
sign up on our website, so we have a general estimate of participants. Our website is https://www.alleganyco.gov/salute/.
Editor's note - It was quite obvious as the low-flying plane cruised over Wellsville!
