WASHINGTON — Early Tuesday morning, 71 military veterans from Utah and across the Intermountain West boarded a flight to Washington, DC. as part of the Utah Honor Flight.
The trip It’s an opportunity for those who have served our nation to visit the memorials in that are meant for them, and for those veterans to receive the respect they often did not get when they came home.
It’s a whirlwind 36 hour journey, but for the veterans it has deep meaning as memories come flooding back.
Support from the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation and an army of volunteers make it all happen.
Most of thee veterans served in Vietnam. For them, coming home was an unwelcome surprise.
When I came home from Vietnam no one believed me and some of them spit on me and called me a _____," said Army vet Jack Johnson. "It destroyed us and we had to burn our uniforms. We couldn’t wear them.
Johnson said he had no clue about the reception he'd get upon returning home while serving his country. A big part the Utah Honor Flight is meant to right that wrong.
The Utah Pipe Band created the atmosphere in the Provo airport as the honored veterans prepared to head to the nation's capitol.
"Our veterans, we obviously owe a debt of gratitude to and this is just a small way to pay them back for their service that they proved to our country," said Stephanie Harmon, the Director of Utah Honor Flight. "You know, many of them don’t have the means to get back to D.Cc to see those memorials, which are their memorials, and so to be able to have these amazing sponsors and get them back to the memorials free of charge is amazing for us."
The flight to the east coast landed in Baltimore just after noon and a visit to the U.S. Capitol.
The next stop was the Iwo Jima Memorial where a quiet reverence took hold in front of the iconic statue representing the defeat of the Japanese forces on the remote island in the Pacific.
