Hayley Ermer volunteers with Honor Flight Chicago as a "red shirt:" a medical professional who gives of their time and expertise to ensure a safe and comfortable day for our Veterans. Hayley's own father served in Vietnam, and her work with HFC's heroes has helped her understand her dad's experience in war and the resulting PTSD he brought home with him.

In the Spring of 1971, Gary Holian surprised his family by coming home for his R&R from Vietnam. The Gary who arrived at their doorstep was quite unlike the Gary they knew before he left for war. Three months later, Gary was killed when his Huey gunship was shot down over the DMZ.

Arnie Oskin never saw combat in Vietnam, but he witnessed firsthand its effects on those who did. Arnie's profession was social work, and he used his skills as a neuro-psychiatric specialist to make recommendations around the mental state of veterans coming back from Vietnam.

Army Special Forces Veteran Bruce Hill served in Laos during the Vietnam War as part of clandestine operations that were not formally acknowledged for many years. Though Hill made it home, a Vietnam tragedy unrelated to his time in Laos changed his life forever.

The Battle of Ia Drang in November of 1965 was the first major battle between the U.S. Army and the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. The engagement spawned a critically acclaimed book and a major motion picture detailing the events around Landing Zones X-Ray and Albany. Lieutenant Bob Konrardy was there.

Carl Adams spent the Vietnam War walking his dog. As an Air Force sentry dog handler at Phan Rang Air Base, Carl's job was to patrol the perimeter each night to defend against sappers and other attacks. The adventures of Carl and his sentry dog, Andy, were often entertaining, sometimes irreverent, and occasionally terrifying.

In May of 1969, Jim Miller was badly wounded in a sapper attack on his firebase near the infamous "Hamburger Hill." In the months that followed, Jim had to re-learn how to walk. He also sought to learn exactly what had happened that day, a process that took far longer.

On May 9, 1968, Marine Corps L/Cpl Timothy Fitzmaurice was killed in action in Thua Thien Province, Vietnam. His sisters, Ellen Shea and Maureen Schiesser, remember in vivid detail the subsequent knock on the door at their family home.

By the age of 18, James Cox knew he wanted to fly helicopters. In 1969 he arrived in Vietnam as a Huey gunship pilot, an assignment full of risk considering over one-third of all Hueys in combat were shot down during the war.

Army SP5 Tom Messenger served as a flight engineer on a Chinook in the early 1970s, flying "dozens and dozens" of missions ferrying men and supplies into Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. While some of those missions were uneventful "milk runs" as Tom says, many were not.

Air Force SSgt Donald Beach's job in Vietnam was, in part, loading body bags onto planes heading back to the States. When he was greeted by protestors upon his return home, Don was so upset that he wrote a letter to his Congressman -- a letter so powerful it was entered into the Congressional Record.

Johnnie Williams received a bit of advice as he arrived in Vietnam: Don't get too close to the soldiers you are fighting with. As Johnnie came to understand, though, heeding that advice was much easier said than done.