The Whiteside County Honor Flight Committee would like to salute Tom Taylor, community leader for the Quad Cities Walgreens’ stores.

Tom and his faithful volunteers have assumed a treasured role in preparing veterans for their Honor Flights. They take individual photographs of veterans before boarding the morning of the flight, group photos and selected memorable shots during the visits to various monuments and photos of the grand finale at the Quad Cities Airport as the entire parade of veterans and guardians end the special day. All those photos are burned to CD/DVDs and sent to each veteran as a thank-you gift from Walgreens.

The community crew can be seen as early as 5 a.m. at the airport to begin taking photographs of the veterans and their guardians. These warm, committed friends of Honor Flight return in the evening (around 10 p.m.) to cheer, thank and otherwise show honor to the returning veterans. They may be a small number among the hundreds who flood the terminal expressing gratitude, but their red Walgreens shirts stand out in the crowd.