North Country Honor Flight

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has announced that the last surviving World War II Mohawk code talker has died. Levi Oakes was one of 17 Mohawks from the Akwesasne  tribe in northern New York that the Department of Defense confirmed used their native language as an unbreakable code to transmit messages during WWII. In September 2016, Oakes and his daughter Diane Swamp traveled to Plattsburgh to participate in an Honor Flight. They spoke to WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley about his experience as a codetalker.

The North Country Honor Flight sponsors World War II and Korean veterans on flights to Washington DC three to five times a year.   Since it was created in 2013, the group has made 22 flights and brought 328 veterans to the nation’s memorials.  But organizers were concerned that some veterans were unable or unwilling to fly.  On the last Honor Flight of the year, the group inaugurated a new virtual reality tour.