Villages Honor Flight (VHF) mounts missions, not (just) flights; The flight is a very important part of the mission.  A mission consists of all the activities as seen by the vet and as executed behind the scenes by staff from the time the vet is contacted until the reunion.  The steps are pretty obvious; the work required is not:

• Flight date is set by management.
• Reservations are made for expected flight size.
• Vets are contacted.
• Guardians are contacted.
• Flight staff is filled out.
• Vets and guardians are matched up and assigned to squads.
• Vets and guardians attend a preflight meeting (6 weeks before the flight) where guardians are trained, vets and guardians meet, everyone socializes and VHF gather critical info.
• Each squad is required to have a squad social for the purpose of bonding between guardian/veteran and to provide additional training information required for the mission. The training is conducted by a staff member assigned to the social. Each vet is urged to bring their significant other to the squad social.
• Actual flight.
• Flight debrief.
• Reunion (approx 2 months after the flight).