WASHINGTON, D.C. (WZMQ) – On Wednesday morning, Upper Peninsula Honor Flight Mission XXII took more than 70 veterans to Washington, D.C. for a tour of the memorials built in their honor.
The day started with a drive through Arlington National Cemetery. The veterans stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to see the changing of the guard. Afterward, it was on to the Air Force Memorial and the Marine Corps War Memorial.
Each stop was an incredible experience for vets like Bill Lahti, who has a long list of military experience.
“I wore a uniform for 33 years,” he said.
Lahti served in the Navy, the National Guard, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. He also repaired helicopters for the Army. The Honor Flight gave him a chance to reflect on his more than three decades of service to his country.
“I think it made me a better man,” Lahti said. “It taught responsibility, to get along with others, get the job done.”
At the Navy Memorial and Heritage Center, two sailors reunited for the first time in 25 years.
“I was an x-ray technologist, so the ship needed one of me,” said Hospital Corpsman Third Class Roger Brown, who was in town from North Carolina.
“[I was an] operating room technician,” said Honor Flight veteran Gilbert Koski, Hospital Corpsman Second Class.
The pair’s crew organized the fleet on their 610-foot guided missile cruiser, based in the south of France.
“The other job was kind of a surprise to us,” said Brown. “We were part of the State Department and we were part of NATO. Our job was to help these NATO countries keep the Russians from building a base in Greece. We covered every country that touched the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa and the Middle East.”
“I got over to Finland, Sweden, Norway,” Koski said. “Wherever the ship didn’t take me, I went and so did Roger. They wouldn’t let us both go at the same time, so he’d go to Ireland and he’d go to Finland. Now we’re together again for the first time in many, many years.”
After more than two decades, Brown and Koski said it felt great to be side by side. They also said their time in the military made them who they are today.
“There’s nothing like service,” Brown said. “It grows you up. It teaches you to be part of something bigger than yourself.”
“I think that every young man should go in the service,” said Koski. “It doesn’t have to be the Navy, it can be the Army, the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, but you should serve your country.”
Other Honor Flight highlights included the Korean and Vietnam Veterans Memorials and the World War II Memorial. Veterans also stopped at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
The group was comprised almost entirely of Vietnam veterans, with just one Korean War veteran. Four female veterans flew on Mission XXII, including Army veteran Rosalene Engstrom.
“I was a top secret stenographer in the service,” she said.
According to Enstrom, the military has changed a lot for women since the ’60s.
“We had skirts and dress jackets,” Engstrom said. “We were not allowed pants. We had dress shoes, no boots.”
She says the clothes are not the only thing that’s different.
“Women Army Corps, they don’t even exist anymore,” said Engstrom. “That’s a shame, because the women created that. That’s history. To take that away and how we served and we honored our country, I feel so much of it’s gone by the traditions they’ve changed.”
However, Enstrom says she is humbled to have been a passenger on the Upper Peninsula Honor Flight.
“I joined to serve the country,” she said. “It was my duty, and yet now they’re honoring me? It’s unbelievable! I didn’t do anything special. I can’t even give you words.”
To hear from a veteran about his return home during the era of the Vietnam War, click here.
