WASHINGTON D.C. (NBC 26) — The Old Glory Honor Flight brought 86 local veterans to Washington D.C. to visit monuments build in their honor.
When boarding the plane at the Appleton International Airport, the group was ready to make several stops which included the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the US Marine Corps Memorial.
Greeted with cheers from the crowd at Reagan International Airport, veterans like George Gunther from Oshkosh say that's when the emotional journey of the day began.
"It was maybe three or four hundred people standing there clapping. And it kind of made tears well up in your eyes that everybody appreciated it that much," said Gunter.
The veterans' first stop of the morning was the World War II Memorial, where veterans lined up to take pictures near the Wisconsin pillar. It was there that Sturgeon Bay Vietnam War Veteran Armand Nault honored his father.
"The World War II one means a lot to me because my dad was in World War II and my mom was alive in World War II and she served in the Pentagon," said Nault.
Veterans on the honor flight all served prior to May 7, 1975, with many of them serving in the Vietnam or Korean War.
"I knew this was going to be a confrontation with the past," said Vietnam War Veteran Dick Kaluck.
Kaluck and other members of the honor flight group used copy paper to scratch copies of names etched into the memorial wall. Each of the 58,313 names represents someone who lost their lives in Vietnam.
For Kaluck, one name stood out from the rest.
"Jim and I were best friends. We went through basic training together… we flew on the plane to Vietnam together. Got moved up to Natraine, which is a reinforcement battalion. And there we got separated," said Kaluck. "We communicated by letter while I was there. And one day I got a letter back from the Department of the Army. It was a letter I sent to him. It said that he was deceased," Kaluck added. " We thought we were best friends forever. But somebody had a different idea."
At the Korean War Memoria, Dan and Jim Flouger of Appleton remembered a third brother, who died in the war when they were 8 and 4 years old.
"I remember one thing, I was sick the day he left... talking about it, apparently made me a little sad," said Dan Flouger.
Before heading for a triumphant return to Northeast Wisconsin, the veterans had time to explore the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the US Marine Corps Memorial and a stop at the Arlington National Cemetary for the changing of the guard.
