‘For 55 years, I’ve been waiting for this’: Honor Flight gives Vietnam veteran from Schererville, other vets, their due
Baggage claim carousels 1 through 4 at Chicago Midway International Airport were awash Wednesday night with American flags and red, white and blue balloons.
Waiting friends and families held signs: Welcome home. Thank you for your service. And one, with patriotic tinsel trim, said, “Some people never met their hero. I call mine Dad.”
Curious, weary travelers taking the escalator down to baggage claim looked on in wonder. Some smiled or waved, uncertain of what was going on. Others captured the moment on their cellphones.
This was a hero’s welcome, as it should be. The hundreds of people gathered in baggage claim were waiting for Honor Flight Chicago’s last plane of the year. On board were 110 veterans, a handful who served in World War II but most who served in Vietnam.
For many, like George Hessenthaler of Schererville, who was drafted to serve in the Marine Corps at age 19 during the Vietnam War, they were at last receiving the welcome, the thank yous, the hugs and handshakes of gratitude, that they’ve waited most of their lives to receive.
‘That’s the emotion of it’
The Honor Flight program, which is free to participants, takes veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit war memorials and monuments. While some of the trips are for three days, those sponsored by Honor Flight Chicago are a day, with veterans gathering at Midway at 4 a.m. and returning that night.
Honor Flight Chicago started in 2008, said co-director Doug Meffley, three years after the program got underway in Ohio. There are now more than 120 active Honor Flight hubs across the country.
“We’re the most active,” Meffley said, adding that the Chicago hub has provided the trip for 10,600 veterans. In total, the national program has served more than 250,000 veterans since it began.
Flights were put on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, making wait times for veterans even longer than they’ve been in the past.
“Right now, a veteran who applies with us, it’s going to be about a two-year wait,” Meffley said, adding veterans from World War II and Korea are given priority because of their age.
More than 2,200 veterans are on the Chicago hub’s waitlist, a number that was over 2,600 at the start of the year. Between April, when the monthly flights started, and the last flight Wednesday, more than 650 veterans participated.
Meffley expects the waitlist to bump up to 2,600 veterans by the time the flights begin again in the spring.
“It’s so much a function of vets fly, come back and tell their buddies about it,” Meffley said.
By and large, he said, Northwest Indiana veterans like Hessenthaler fly out of the Chicago hub, as do veterans from the Chicago area who have moved away but still have family here.
“We have more of a national presence than most hubs,” Meffley said.
The veterans on Wednesday’s flight signed up shortly before the pandemic began. The Chicago hub was the first in the nation to resume flights, in August 2021, flying four flights in 10 weeks to work through the backlog of waiting veterans.
Like many of the people involved with Honor Flight, Meffley has a personal connection to the veteran community. Both of his grandfathers served in World War II and two uncles served stateside during Vietnam.
Being involved in the program, Meffley said, is his way of honoring them. Vietnam veterans in particular don’t think they deserve recognition for their service, he added, and they do.
“It takes everyone in the war effort and that’s our primary message,” Meffley said, before checking a flight tracking app on his cellphone to confirm the returning veterans were still on target to land at 8:21 p.m.
If the concept of the waiting crowd isn’t a surprise to the veterans, Meffley said, then its scope is.
“That’s the emotion of it,” he said, adding that Vietnam veterans came home after their service to open animosity. “We hear the words healing and closure so often.”
‘It was a revelation’
George Hessenthaler, 77, grew up on Chicago’s northwest side and moved to Schererville 18 years ago when he married his wife, Marsha. A friend of his told him about Honor Flight after he went on one.
George signed up in 2019.
“It takes a while to get called. That’s why I was very surprised I got called,” he said earlier in the week by phone, before his trip.
He got the call Sept. 25, after an outpatient procedure for one of the health issues he attributes to his time in the service and exposure to the exfoliant Agent Orange, as well as contaminated water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Over the years, George has dealt with two bouts of bladder cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other challenges. The health issues among veterans are common, he said, which is a shame.
“We still carry the war with us that way,” George said, adding the government is finally beginning to realize and acknowledge the health consequences for veterans from their time in the service, including PTSD.
After his time in the Marine Corps, where he achieved the rank of lance corporal, George went back to a job at Wilson Sporting Goods in River Grove, Illinois, working in the claims department.
George’s career has spanned “blue (collar), white, then self-employed,” he said, before he retired around 10 years ago from the online resale business.
Two separate events several years ago “kind of turned things around for me,” George said.
He was at a Fourth of July parade in Crown Point wearing a Vietnam veteran T-shirt when a Marine Corps float went by. One of the Marines with the float saw George’s shirt and saluted and thanked him.
George tried to brush it off.
“You guys deserve it,” he recalled the fellow Marine saying. “That really opened my eyes. Recognition was finally coming.”
Around the same time, during a trip to SeaWorld in Orlando, active military and veterans in the audience were asked to stand for recognition.
“The lady in front of me said thank you for your service. I was like, wow. It was a revelation. I’ve never had that,” he said.
‘We’re all honoring your service’
George’s supporters awaiting his arrival at Midway swelled to 15, including extended family. They stood behind a large, hand-lettered banner that said, “Welcome home, George,” in all capital letters, festooned on either side with red, white and blue hearts.
George never talked about his time in the service and was told not to put it on a resume or job application, or to wear his uniform, Marsha, his wife, said.
The increasing recognition of his service over the past several years has opened him up and he’s started writing his memoir.
“What I’m learning is all these guys held it in,” she said, adding George called from Washington during his trip to say he was overwhelmed by the experience, “and he’s never said that.”
That newfound recognition has had an impact on Marsha as well.
“I have a deeper appreciation for what the men and women have given for every war. How dare we shame them,” she said.
Marsha said it’s taken George a long time to trust the recognition he receives and see that it’s real. Marsha learned to thank veterans for their service after the woman at SeaWorld thanked George.
“Of course we should be saying thank you. It just takes one person to be brave enough to teach you,” she said.
Lisa Aumend, George’s stepdaughter, said as the wait for a spot on the Honor Flight dragged on because of the pandemic, a small group of representatives from Honor Flight Chicago showed up outside George and Marsha’s home to salute him.
“They wanted to make sure that in that time period, those veterans were still honored and recognized,” said Aumend, who also lives in Schererville.
George was able to take pictures of veterans who have died with him on the trip. Among the photos he took, tucked in a box with a folded American flag, was one of Lisa’s late father, Steve Evans, who died in a construction accident in 1998.
He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and his duties included digging graves for the Vietnamese who died. He came home with post traumatic stress syndrome.
“All these tears have come out but it’s tears of healing,” Aumend said.
She looked around at the large, cheering crowd of military supporters of all ages and presumably, all backgrounds. With all the divisiveness and different political views, she said, “‘we agree on this today: We’re all American and we’re all honoring your service under our flag.”
‘Our heroes have landed’
At 8:14 p.m., the countdown before the veterans’ arrival intensified. “Seven minutes!” said one woman, the excitement in her voice palpable.
The growing crowd, which rapidly filled the space, sang along to the Frankfort Brass Band’s rendition of “God Bless America.”
A scout troop marched past the gathering, holding large signs that echoed the thanks and welcomes on handmade signs from families. One printed with “Our heroes have landed” garnered a loud round of applause.
“I am so excited I want to cry. I feel so proud I can’t believe this is happening. It’s like a dream,” Marsha said. “I feel like I’m his girl and he’s actually coming home from war. It really feels that way.”
The waiting supporters began to chant, “USA! USA!” Overhead, the distinct sound of bagpipes cut through the chanting. On the floor above baggage claim, members of the Northwest Indiana Sea Cadets based in Lowell could be seen escorting the veterans one by one, pushing their wheelchairs or walking with them toward an elevator that would bring them to the crowd below.
The veterans waved at their friends and family, the crowd bursting into a fresh round of applause for each one. As the cadets escorted them along the indoor parade route, the veterans stopped for hugs and handshakes from people they’d never met.
Through the cacophony, George found Marsha and his family. They kissed and held hands and, after a minute, Marsha joined George to escort him the rest of the route.
“That was amazing,” Aumend said.
George and Marsha caught up with their family for more extended hugs and heartfelt greetings. George got signs made by his great nephews, Parker and Porter Hessenthaler, and posed for pictures.
“It was a fantastic day. I’m telling you, I never expected it to be like this,” George said, listing off the monuments he visited with his fellow veterans, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“It’s overwhelming. It’s a long time coming. It’s very emotional. I’m at a loss for words,” George said. “It’s what this day is about, this last hour. You think you know what’s coming but you can’t be prepared. For 55 years, I’ve been waiting for this.”
“Do you feel healed?” Marsha asked.
“Yes,” George said. “I feel like I did something. I didn’t feel that way before.”
