Mission Complete | Honor Flight Bluegrass celebrates 82 Kentuckiana veterans service with trip to DC

WASHINGTON (WDRB) -- It's a mission unlike any war veteran has severed before.

Honor Flight Bluegrass serves a purpose to give Kentuckiana veterans a day to reflect, and bring closure, while visiting memorials in Washington D.C. dedicated to the wars they served.

Wednesday morning started off on a high-note. Veterans and their guardians checked-in at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, decorated in red, white, and blue, as the Ladies of Liberty singing group serenaded veterans all before sun rise.

Honor Flight Bluegrass trip had 82 veterans part of its Sept. 7, 2022, flight. Eight WWII, 11 Korean War and 63 Vietnam War veterans.

The non-profit flies a group of veterans two or three times a year, at no cost to them, to visit the war memorials and nation's capitol.

"I'm 75 years old and getting a new experience," said Danny Luckett, a Vietnam War veteran.

As the plane touched down in D.C., a water cannon salute and airport ground crew members waving American flags welcomed the service men.

"Incredible," Dennis Hall, an Army veteran said when the water hit the plane.

As the plane de-boarded, strangers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport cheered for the veterans as they made their way to the busses parked outside.  

The first stop of the day was the World War II Memorial. Surrounded by stone panels, representing the 50 states, the veterans circled the monument.

Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Indiana U.S. Senators Mike Braun and Todd Young shook hands and spoke to the veterans at the World War Two Memorial.

Lee Robertson, a 100-year-old World War II veteran said it was a trip he had been looking forward to.

"Every bit of it has been exciting, seeing these guys, they're like my brothers," Robertson said. 

Robertson said seeing the memorials made him appreciate his time he spent in the Army and overseas in the South Pacific during the war.

"When I think about my three and a half years years in the military it was fun," said Robertson. "The reason I say fun is because I'm a people person and the people I met there from all over the world. And my tank crew, five of us in there, a Baptist, a Catholic, a Mormon. From Texas, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Illinois, Beloit, Wisconsin, Hastings, North Dakota, and Calhoun, Kentucky."

World War II Veteran Wayne Quertermous was hesitant about making the one-day trip at 96 years old. But after seeing the memorial, his mind was changed.

"It was exciting, I liked to see it and enjoyed it," said Quertermous.

A police escort, blocking traffic, guided the coach busses to the next stop of the day -- the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

While the rain started to fall, Gene Walter's spirits were high. His grandson, Anthony Walters, an active U.S. Marines Corp service member surprised his grandfather, a Korean War veteran.

"I was surprised," Walters said. "Even my wife, his mother, my daughter back home, they all knew it except me."

By the time veterans made it the the Korean War and Vietnam War Veterans Memorials, the rain had stopped, but the mood became somber.

The Vietnam memorial has over 58,000 names etched into a stone wall. The wall chronologically lists the names of service men and women who died during the controversial war. 

Ronald Renkins, a Vietnam veteran, searched for two names. Larry Johnson, a former classmate and Willie Johnson, a man part of his platoon.

"Willie Johnson was in my platoon and squad, and I came home on R and R, and he liked to take pictures and gave me his film to get developed while home, so I did," Renkins said. "When I got back he got killed that day and had these pictures and didn't know what to do with them, so I held on to them. Years later I went on the virtual wall and his daughter had left a message on there. They had never met, she was born while he was in Vietnam, so I got a hold of her... I sent them to her and she and I have been friends ever since."

Stephen Sanford, a Vietnam veteran, searched the wall for two of his former classmates from Jeffersontown High School, Robert Kavich and Steve Fawbush.

"Good guys we lost and it really hits home," said Sanford. "This is the emotional time of day, this is tough."

"Tough loss," Sanford said while looking at Kavich's name etched in the wall. "Awful lot of young men lost their lives there." 

Veterans were able to walk over to the Korean War Memorial, where life-size statues of soldiers on patrol are on display.

Some service members took pictures beside the memorial, as others just walked through quietly.

The next visit was to pay respects to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice: Arlington National Cemetery.

Veterans sat on the steps, others stood behind chains, as they watched the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, twice, at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

From there it was on to see the famous statue from Iwo Jima of soldiers raising the American flag the the Marine Corps Memorial. There several veterans marveled at the six thirty-two foot high figures, raising a 60-foot bronze flagpole.

The last stop of the day was the Air Force Memorial, with an outlook point over D.C. and the Pentagon. Many veterans posed for pictures with their guardians.

While the visits to various memorials were done, the day was not over yet. As veterans ate dinner at the gate waiting to board the flight back to Louisville, a surprise was waiting. Mail call.

Each veteran had a manila envelope filled with letters from friends, family, and strangers wishing them well and thanking them for their service.

"Mail call was always a time you spend, you lived for it," said Hall. "The feeling doesn't change, seeing how much people appreciate what you did, it just makes you very proud, very proud."

And as the wheels touched down in Louisville, friends and family waited to welcome home their veterans, again. With flags waving and people cheering, the veterans made their way down a tunnel of people shaking their hands and thanking them for their service.

A welcome home many said they did not receive decades ago.

"Seeing people say thank you and the cheering, I never got that 52 years ago, 53 years ago, I'm glad that now a time has evolved to a point troops coming home now are given the welcome home they deserve," said Hall. "Seeing the people today was just fantastic, fantastic."

The Honor Flight Network is comprised of over 130 chapters across the United States and has flown well over 200,000 veterans since 2004. The Louisville has flown over 2,400 Veterans in the last 12 years.

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