MILWAUKEE — While most Honor Flights out of Wisconsin have taken hundreds of veterans through the years to Washington, D.C. to tour the memorials built in honor to their work and sacrifice, a first-of-its-kind flight will depart this week to take 59 veterans to New York City.

“We know that our younger veterans deserve as much recognition and attention as our older veterans whom we’ve been serving for a number of years now,” said Diane MacDonald, executive director of Old Glory Honor Flight based out of Appleton. “We thought it’d be great to change things up and do a special mission.”

Called the Freedom to Liberty Tour: A Mission of Healing, the Honor Flight will depart Thursday and return on Sunday after making stops at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, One World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty.

“It’ll be a busy couple of days,” MacDonald said. “There’s a lot of excitement, there’s a little bit of anxiety, but on the whole we’re just excited to get this going.”

Watch the full interview above.