Marty and Mohagen Honor Flight

In the early fall of 2024 JoAnn Shea asked Sam Marty and Henry Mohagen if we had ever considered going on an honor flight for veterans. She encouraged us to get our military information to her and she signed us up. We each received a post card that we were signed up and likely it would be a 2-3 year wait to actually go on an honor flight. We had heard that there were about 600 on the waiting list so we were quite surprised when we received a phone call in February telling us we could go on May 6th.

The Midwest Honor Flight 24 sponsored a banquet on May 5th. Each branch of the service was recognized and with roll call each veteran was acknowledged. It was a very nice banquet honoring the veterans. Spouses were included in the banquet as well as the return festivities but were not to travel with their spouses on the honor flight to Washington DC.  Guardians were assigned to each veteran and traveled with them on the flight. There were 85 veterans; 82 Vietnam, two Korean and one peacetime veteran. With the guardians, veterans, a number of medical staff and some Midwest Honor flight staff, including photographers, there were about 200 on the flight. We left Sioux Falls early Tuesday morning. When we arrived at Regan airport in Washington DC we were honored with two firetrucks, one on each side, giving the airplane a water cannon salute as we taxied in. There were people at the terminal that honored us as we got off the plane. It was very humbling. We were transported around in four large busses that were equipped to handle wheel chairs. This tour was to war memorials so we didn’t get to museums and other points of interest in DC. The first memorial was the Airforce monument. This is near the Pentagon and it was visible where the building had been repaired after the attack airplane had hit the Pentagon building on September 11th. We drove through part of Arlington Cemetery and went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There we watched the changing of the guard. We also went to the Marine Corps War Memorial. The memorial statue depicts the raising of the flag on Iwi Jima. The Navy Memorial is on Pennsylvania Avenue that goes between the Whitehouse and the Capital building. While at the Navy Memorial the Keloland photographer interviewed Sam Marty, that is to be aired on May20th. At the WWII Memorial, Representative Dusty Johnson and Senator John Thune met us off the bus and had pictures with a number of veterans. Most of us were Vietnam veterans so more time was given to walk around and search for the names of fallen soldiers, on the Wall. The Vietnam nurses monument is there as well and it depicts the dedication of the nurses in war time. The Korean memorial and monuments are near this area as well. The Lincoln Memorial is not a war memorial but is in the same vicinity. Everything was very well organized and we were very well taken care of. What was very touching were the many kids and adults that would come up to us and thank us for our service.

When we arrived back in Sioux Falls we were met at the airport with a group of Bagpipers and a group of about 100 motorcycle riders that lined each side of the corridor with flags honoring us. They gave us a very noisy escort over to the event center where the buses were driven into the arena and we unloaded to the cheers of 3-4 hundred people in the stands. This is where friends and families could meet their veterans. It was a WOW experience, way more than we ever expected, welcoming us home. I’m sure that most, if not all of us on the flight, would not consider ourselves heroes by any means but are proud to have served our country in some way. We just did what we were asked to do and I personally felt we were helping the South Vietnamese people. The Midwest Honor Flight 24 did an excellent job of honoring us and had everything planned perfectly. Sam and I would like to thank those that support Midwest Honor Flights and JoAnn Shea for encouraging us to go and getting us signed up. Henry Mohagen