A flight to remember

When strangers see the words on Ed Kinsall's ball cap, they often approach to shake his hand and thank him for his service.

Until now, he's never been sure whether to believe they were sincere.

Kinsall has never forgotten what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the public's ire towards the Vietnam War. As he returned home through Chicago O'Hare, having been discharged from Great Lakes Naval Hospital, he was verbally abused and even spat on.

Vietnam was a lesson learned for many Americans. The sight of a member of the public thanking a veteran or active service member is now commonplace.

But for Kinsall, it took half a century to experience the welcome home he deserved.

Honor and Gratitude

The High Plains Honor Flight is part of the national Honor Flight Network. Its mission is to celebrate America's veterans through an all-expenses-paid trip to visit the nation's memorials in Washington, D.C.

Kinsall heard about it through the American Legion of Piedmont and decided to mail in an application. Just over a year later, he was heading down to Colorado to meet with 121 other veterans – including four others from Wyoming, a few from Nebraska and many from Colorado – and board a plane to the nation's capital.

As the buses departed Loveland, bound for the airport in Denver, the highway was lined with citizens waving flags.

"It was the same both coming and going," Kinsall says.

The buses received a police escort all the way to Denver and were also accompanied by a group of 120 veterans on motorcycles, half behind the buses and half in front, and helicopters piloted by local EMS.

Kinsall could already tell that the trip was going to have a cathartic effect.

"For a lot of us on the flight, it gave us a chance to see what we were fighting for," he says. "Not just the monuments in Washington, D.C., but the people who lined the route."

Tributes to Heroes

The Honor Flight landed in Baltimore, MD, where the veterans were treated to an informal banquet before retiring for the night. The next morning, the tour itself began.

Once in D.C., the veterans were divided into four groups, each assigned three "guardians" – volunteers who take care of each person's needs for the duration of the trip.

"If a veteran develops a special need, they make sure that need is met. They provide wheelchairs, walkers, walking sticks if a veteran needs them," he says.

The tour is also guided, and accompanied by medical professionals in case they are needed.

Along as guardians on this particular trip, Kinsall says, were two students who between them had raised $50,000 for the Honor Flight program – an action he found particularly meaningful.

The tour took in a number of the monuments built to honor America's veterans."We started out with the World War II monument, because we had one veteran on the flight from World War II," Kinsall says.

"From there, we were in easy walking distance of the Korean War monument. On that particular section of what they call the Mall, you could stand right in the middle and in one direction you're looking at the Washington Monument and in the other at the Lincoln Monument."

From there, Kinsall says, the veterans were taken to Arlington National Cemetery to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was a particularly impressive sight, he says, because they arrived at the changing of the guard.

"One thing I was able to share with the other veterans in my group was...to count the number of steps the guard takes. It will be 21 steps, then he'll turn around and go back, taking 21 steps," he says.

These steps symbolize the 21-gun salute, he explains: the highest military honor.

"We also visited the Marine Corps War Memorial and another thing that impressed me, especially with me being a Marine, is that our bus driver always parks in the same spot. Of course, we all got out and looked and visited with each other, but as we got back in, the driver told us: watch the flag," he says.

The memorial depicts the raising of the flag at Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945. It contains an optical illusion: the flag is positioned in such a way to appear, as you move around the monument, that it is being raised.

The veterans were given t-shirts identifying them as part of the Honor Flight and caps that bore the name of the war they fought for their country. In Kinsall's case, of course, the cap said "Vietnam Veteran".

"Visiting the different monuments, I had several people, other tourists, who walked up to me and thanked me for my service. They told me that they were sorry for the way that I was treated when I got home," Kinsall says.

Process of Healing

"With being a Vietnam veteran, for me it brought closure," Kinsall says of the trip. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, for most of the veterans on my flight, it brought closure of some type."

The insults Kinsall heard in the airport as he traveled home have never left his mind – until now.

"The flight kind of kicked those actions out of my way," he says.

Part of this healing effect came through contemplation of the servicemen and women who are honored in the monuments. Some was the results of the camaraderie he experienced with his fellow veterans.

"At least for me, it was very helpful to be around other Vietnam veterans who experienced the same or similar as what I had experienced," he says.

This, he says, led to the feeling that a chapter of his life had finally been closed by the time the bus pulled back into Loveland.

"It made me feel like I was welcomed home again, which a lot of Vietnam veterans were not," he says.

Lasting Effect

On his return, Kinsall says he was further honored with an invitation to speak with veterans in Buffalo about his experience. The trip was everything Kinsall hoped for and more, he says, and he would highly recommend that other veterans experience it for themselves.

"I'm sure there are other veterans out there who have never gotten the closure they want or need," he says.

To apply for an Honor Flight, visit highplainshonorflight.org to download the application form. Guardians are also needed for the April 30, 2023 flight.

The organization's ultimate vision is of a nation where all of America's veterans experience the honor, gratitude and community of support they deserve. With each flight, they move a little closer to that goal.

Back home in Sundance, Kinsall has taken off his Honor Flight ball cap and replaced it with the black Vietnam Vet cap he's worn for many years. He'll be wearing it when he fetches the groceries and takes trips, just as he always has.

But now, he'll have a different reaction when strangers mark the words on his hat and approach him. Now, he says, he believes them.