Logansport veteran's trip to D.C. a memorable one
Nov. 3—It wasn't seeing the monuments raised to honor veterans who served in past wars that choked Jerry Miller up while recounting his honor flight to Washington, D.C.
It was the experience of being in the airplane as water arced overhead from firetrucks lining the runway performing a water cannon salute. It was the applause as he and other veterans departed the planes. It was seeing 10 family members there to greet him after returned and being gifted handwritten notes from them.
"In my era, it was all letters," said Miller, a Vietnam veteran. "So (Honor Flight) had a number of my friends and relatives who wrote us letters, and we got this big packet of 'Welcome Home' letters in this big bag. That was really cool.
"There were over 500 people there when we arrived (back to West Lafayette)," he said. "I had 10 family members there myself, and there were a lot of other veterans' family members who were there to welcome them back. I didn't know this was going to happen."
Miller was one of more than 80 local veterans who took part in the trip on Oct. 11, which started and ended at the Purdue University Airport. In about 12 hours, the vets and their guardians — who assist as needed during the flight and at the memorials — were flown to D.C. and shuttled around to notable memorial sites.
The day began at 6 a.m. when the vets were served breakfast at the airport. An hour and a half later, they were on their way to D.C. and arrived around 8:30-9 a.m. Both airports had water cannon salutes and dozens of people waving flags as they arrived.
Miller had seen many of the memorial sites before, but one thing that stuck out to him was seeing the changing of the guards at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
"Everything at Arlington with the changing of the guard and what they do is in 21, referencing the 21-gun salute," he said. "When they march back and forth it's 21 steps, and when they turn and face the tomb it's 21 seconds. You can sit there — and I did — and count it. They were right on."
The group returned around 7:30 p.m. that night to more than 500 people including his 10 family members. The stack of letters he received reminded him of receiving mail during his time in Vietnam.
Miller served as an officer on the U.S.S. Garrett County, a landing ship built during World War II to assist in amphibious operations. The ships were decommissioned after the war before being recommissioned for Vietnam. Miller said the bow doors of the ship opened up and carried eight river patrol boats and could fit two UH-1 "Huey" helicopters.
They patrolled mostly throughout the Mekong Delta.
"I was in charge of all the deck and gunnery," he said. "We had a big crane right here, and we lifted (damaged boats) up and put them down in our well deck. We would repair those boats right there."
Miller signed up after completing his business degree at Indiana University. He served from March 1968 to March 1969.
One memory that sticks out to Miller was being a part of the changing of command when Vice Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. relieved Rear Admiral Kenneth Vath as commander of Navy and Coast Guard personnel serving in Vietnam.
"Our ship got picked for his change of command," he said. "So I flew all over the Mekong Delta getting paint to help paint the ship, so we look sharp."
The ceremony featured prominent people including Admiral John McCain Jr., ambassador to South Vietnam Ellsworth Bunker, General Westmoreland and more.
"They came on and saluted the flag and then saluted me as the officer on the deck," Miller said. "That was pretty cool. It was an experience that I'll never forget."
He said he was lucky to return home relatively unscathed. His most tense moments came in his final days in Vietnam with the ship only five miles from Cambodia.
"The river up there was not a whole lot wider than the Wabash," he said. "We set anchor, so we were kind of sitting ducks the last two nights that I was there. We sat in general quarters all night because we'd gotten word that they might attack our ship. But they didn't. And the next day I left, which was so funny now I look back on it."
He returned home to Indiana later in 1969 and settled in Logansport — not far from his hometown of Monon — with his wife of 57 years. He took a job at Northwestern Mutual.
He said adjusting back to life wasn't too difficult for him, but he realizes that's a lucky position to be in as a veteran.
"I was fortunate in the fact that being on board ship we didn't have any serious things went on," he said. "The guys in those boats had some serious things that went on, and we were there in support of them."
Miller recommended the Honor Flight to any vet in the area. Even nonveterans interested in helping out can apply as guardians who are paired with a vet for the trip. He said many of the people he went with didn't have relatives to be their guardians, so volunteering in that way helps make the experience for them.
As for the letters he received from his family, he said there were very nice things said, but the one that came quickly to him was from his grandson Jackson who simply said: "You're a beast."
