(This article by Kathie Rowell originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Military Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members. Learn more about the magazine here; learn more about joining MOAA here.)

Lt. Col. Kenneth Mostella, USA (Ret), served two tours in Vietnam as an infantry officer and a helicopter pilot. While he was not actively denounced upon his return home as many Vietnam veterans were, he recalls a feeling of disconnection as he sat in an airport wearing his khakis and drew no attention at all.

“Everybody was going about their normal routines like nothing was going on over there, and some of these young men, 18-, 19-year-olds, are being killed every day. Nobody seemed to know. Nobody seemed to want to talk about it or acknowledge it,” he said.

In April, Mostella’s service was celebrated when he took part in an Honor Flight Network trip for veterans to visit the war memorials in Washington, D.C., one of about 22,500 veterans transported from the nonprofit’s hubs across the U.S. each year. 

Many MOAA chapters and individual members are involved as volunteers and financial contributors all along the way.

“I was completely overwhelmed,” said Mostella, who flew from the Blue Ridge Honor Flight hub in Asheville, N.C., which is supported by MOAA’s Western North Carolina Chapter. “The people that set this thing up, all the work they had done … and then the other men that were there for this flight, I’m sure had the same experiences that I had. It was like a reunion.”

The veterans — about 90 of them — attracted a lot of attention at the memorials, he said.

“People would stop and say, ‘Thank you for your service.’ It was like a celebration everywhere we went. Everybody was very kind.”

Honor Flight History

The Honor Flight Network has created these kinds of experiences for veterans for nearly 20 years. It had its beginnings when Capt. Earl Morse, USAF (Ret), was working as a physician’s assistant at a VA clinic in Springfield, Ohio. He asked World War II veterans if they planned to visit the newly completed World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., but most were not financially or physically able.

A pilot himself, Morse recruited others to help, and in May 2005, six small planes flew 12 veterans from Springfield to Washington. More flights followed.

“My hope initially was to finally recognize this incredible group of men and women who, collectively and literally, saved the world,” Morse said. “I could not sit idly by and not attempt to make their final dreams of visiting their memorial come true.”

By the end of the year, Jeff Miller, of Hendersonville, N.C., inspired by Morse’s efforts, began HonorAir, large-scale efforts to transport World War II veterans to see the memorials, flying out of Asheville, N.C.

In 2007, Morse and Miller merged their efforts and Honor Flight Network was created with the original goal of flying every World War II veteran to see their memorial at no cost to them. Now, there are 129 hubs across the nation with volunteers who coordinate trips and ceremonies and serve as guardians who escort veterans every step of the way. As the World War II veteran population dwindled, trips were opened up to Korean War and Vietnam War veterans. Approximately 300,000 veterans have made the trip so far.

[RELATED: MOAA Member Part of All-Women Honor Flight Trip]

Honor Flight Network Chief of Staff Marion Watkins said veterans are furnished guardians for the trip if they have no family member available, sent off with fanfare from their departing airport, land in Washington to a water cannon salute, are met with cheers when they deplane, escorted through the airport by volunteers and board charter buses to the memorials, where they are celebrated with ceremonies, and welcomed home with music and banners when they return.

Morse said the most profound experiences are among the Vietnam veterans.

“For the majority of them, the last time they were publicly recognized for their service, it was a horrible nightmare,” he said. “The scars of war and the scars of their treatment upon their return run very, very deep. When Vietnam veterans go on an Honor Flight, they realize our nation actually views them completely opposite. Our Vietnam veterans are revered, cherished, and loved by our country. ... Yes, the scars run deep, but so does the incredible healing that takes place on every Honor Flight trip.”

MOAA Helps Out

The Western North Carolina Chapter of MOAA is one of many chapters involved in supporting Honor Flights, both financially and personally, participating in airport send-offs and welcome home gatherings as well as serving as guardians. Honor Flight Network co-founder Miller is an honorary member of the chapter.

Maj. Gen. Rick Devereaux, USAF (Ret), a Western North Carolina Chapter board member and vice president of the Blue Ridge Honor Flight Hub board, has been involved with the Honor Flight Network since 2014 and has been on most of the hub’s twice-per-year flights since 2016.

“When we take our veterans from this hub to Washington, besides showing them the memorials and letting them have a personal experience at each one, we always have a large ceremony, either on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial or one of the other memorial sites, and that includes an honor guard from the Military District of Washington, a wreath-laying ceremony, [and] the playing of taps, and we get an active duty general officer or flag officer from the Pentagon to make remarks to our veterans and to present ceremonial coins,” he said.

Devereaux said he felt drawn to become a part of the mission because it’s such a positive experience for veterans.

“Although we acknowledge the service of all veterans as being valuable, we wanted to particularly honor those veterans who had deployed to combat theaters,” he said. “This was a way to honor them, to help them be connected with other veterans who had similar experiences, and to promote their service to the wider public. On so many levels, I think it turned out to be a point of pride not just for our veterans and their families but also for the American public to witness this.”

As a career officer with 34 years of service, Devereux said while the military defined his life, he realized the vast majority of veterans answered the nation’s call for a brief but profound period and never received the appreciation they deserved.

“It strikes me that it’s important to sort of awaken a sense of gratitude for their service that many of them have never received, particularly our Vietnam veterans who came home not just to a lack of a welcome, but often they were treated badly,” he said. “They weren’t able to really talk about their service in a way that a World War II veteran or even a Korean War veteran could. I can’t tell you how much these Honor Flights have become therapeutic flights for our Vietnam veterans in particular.”

‘Veterans Relate to Veterans’

Lt. Col. Joe Machado, USA (Ret), is a member of MOAA’s Central Ohio Chapter and a former board member for Honor Flight Columbus, one of the first hubs formed and which now organizes about 10 flights a year. He was instrumental in obtaining chapter involvement and still volunteers himself occasionally. The chapter has furnished guardians and airport greeters as well as promoted Honor Flight participation at outreach events.

Machado believes MOAA involvement with Honor Flights is natural.

“Veterans relate best to veterans,” he said. “Going on a trip with another veteran is very important to the comfort of the veterans.”

Cmdr. Jack Greenhalgh, USN (Ret), a member of MOAA’s Virginia Peninsula Chapter, has been involved with what is now Old Dominion Honor Flight since its conception. While he served as an active volunteer for many years, he now recruits participants from the retirement community where he lives and helps them find guardians if no family member is available.

He, too, sees the value to Vietnam veterans.

“Citizens that happen to be at the monument walk up to them and thank them for their service and shake their hand. It was impressive enough for the World War II veterans, but it’s become even more impressive, I think, for the Vietnam veterans who never got anybody shaking their hand. There was very little welcome, to say the least, and I spent a year in Vietnam, so I know what it was like.”

[RELATED: Vietnam Unchronicled]

Greenhalgh said veterans often have to be convinced to go but are thankful when they get back home.

He remembers a speaking engagement where a veteran asked to say something to the group.

“He said that the three most important days of his life were his marriage, his bar mitzvah, and his Honor Flight trip,” Greenhalgh recalled.

A Welcome Home to Remember

Capt. Ron McCall, USAF (Ret), president of MOAA’s Ozark Empire (Mo.) Chapter, joined fellow chapter members and members of the community at Springfield-Branson National Airport Aug. 14 to celebrate veterans returning home from their flight. McCall, who is also president of the board of directors of Honor Flight of the Ozarks, said welcome home are typically 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. But despite the late start time, nearly 50 volunteers attend to show their support.

These celebrations have a lasting impact on flight participants. Mostella said it might be his favorite memory of his Honor Flight trip.

“My lasting memory is getting off the plane and heading toward that hangar in Asheville,” he said. “It was packed with people at 9:30 at night, and it was raining, and it was cold, and they still had the fire trucks out there spraying, and they had bands.”

Col. J. Gunnar Schalin, USA (Ret), a member of the Miramar (Calif.) Chapter and a Vietnam veteran who took part in an Honor Flight trip through the San Diego hub in October 2022, agrees.

“You’ve probably seen TV clips of Honor Flight homecomings,” he said. “Believe me, those clips do not do it justice. I was overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for all those who came out to welcome us home. I was the last one off the aircraft and the last one down the escalator where the roar of cheers was overwhelming.”

Col. J. Gunnar Schalin, USA (Ret), far right, a member of the Miramar (Calif.) Chapter, is welcomed home from his Honor Flight trip by family and friends. (Courtesy photo)

For McCall and other chapter volunteers, this is what makes it all worthwhile.

“Giving to others is what drives me,” he said. “I want to show honor to others who have been willing to serve our country and demonstrate gratitude in a tangible way.”  

Kathie Rowell is a writer based in Louisiana.