Local veterans visit Washington, receive hero’s welcome thanks to Honor Flight

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - A welcome home half a century overdue. It’s well documented how poorly Vietnam War veterans were treated when they returned to the U.S. in the 1960s and 70s, and Korean War veterans hardly received a welcome home at all.

For about 80 veterans who call upstate New York home, they finally got the warm welcome they were denied during their service.

Those vets received a joyful greeting as they arrived in Syracuse to board an Honor Flight bound for Washington D.C.

The celebration continued as they touched down in the nation’s capital.

And a crowd gathered to watch - some just curious passersby happy to lend encouragement to the redolent occasion.

Honor Flight 19 out of Syracuse took 82 veterans, most from the Korean and Vietnam Wars, to tour the monuments commemorating their sacrifices.

“Amazing how kind everyone has been. And so helpful. It’s an eye-opener without a doubt,” said Ken Benson, a veteran from Carthage.

“You can feel the vibe from the other veterans and the support people that are with them. It’s quite wonderful,” said George Sheehan, a veteran from Black River.

Sheehan, a Rutland Town Justice, served 23 years in the Army. In Vietnam, he was in Charlie Company with the 7-16th Military Police Battalion operating in what was then Saigon.

As veterans and family members reflect at memorials like the Vietnam Wall, it’s common to take etchings of the names immortalized on them.

Sheehan lost three people in the war.

“It really hit me today. I lost my commander and two good friends on the same day in Vietnam and I didn’t realize how hard that would be to get an etching of the names, but it really hit me in the gut,” he said.

Clancy Peters, a veteran from Watertown, was looking for the names of people he knew, the Kraft brothers of Ohio.

“He took a bullet. I know that. Other than that I don’t know,” said Peters.

Peters joined the Navy out of high school, serving from 1962 to 67, then re-enlisting 9 months later.

From 1984 until 2007, Peters worked at Watertown High School and spent time running the clock for high school football and basketball games and doing similar tasks for JCC sports teams.

Each of the north country veterans we spoke with said what makes the Honor Flight special is experiencing it with each other.

“I feel at home talking to them,” said Peters.

“That’s what makes it great, actually. Being with a lot of these other veterans,” said Benson.

Benson has lived in Carthage since his Army career brought him to Fort Drum in 1993. He first served from 1968 to 1970 with the 19th Aviation Company in Korea.

He rejoined from 1985 to 2003, working at Fort Drum for much of that time and later as a contractor in the Middle East.

“It’s just amazing being with these guys. Beyond words, I’ll put it that way,” said Benson.

It’s a reception these veterans were deprived of when they returned from war as younger men.

“For a long time, I didn’t even wear a uniform off post,” said Sheehan.

While in Seattle, headed to Korea, Sheehan says he was labeled what many Vietnam vets were.

“A car came down the street, and I’m walking up the street with an airman as it was. We were both in uniform, and the teenagers that were driving the car yelled out, ‘Baby killer,’ and it kind of shook me up,” he said.

But times are changing. Sheehan says over the last decade he’s experienced more gratitude than he’d ever imagined.

“First time I heard that I was kind of taken aback, shocked, by someone saying thank you. The fact of the matter is, it was the honor of my lifetime to have served,” he said.

“It takes a lot of work to run the Honor Flights and the dedicated folks who put together the ones out of Syracuse run a smooth ship.

On Wednesday on 7 News This Evening at 6, we’ll meet some of those people who make all of this happen for central and northern New York’s veterans.

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