First Sergeant Charles, “Chuck,” Bosko served in the US Army as a Combat Medic during the Vietnam War. Before Chuck joined the military, multiple relatives of his also proudly served our country, including his father, who served in the South Pacific during WWII as a Combat Engineer.
Michael’s enlistment code was an MOS 0311, also known as Grunt Rifleman / Ground Pounder. The riflemen are the heart of the Marine Corps. His unit was sent out on “Search and Destroy Missions” right away.
This is the story of three sons of Our Lady Of Guadalupe who also fought in Vietnam. They came home with deep emotional scars. But theirs’ is also a story of love, loyalty, and healing.
Terry Welch says he’s lived a charmed life. It does seem that way. Despite being wounded twice during his one-year tour in Vietnam, multiple skydives and almost crashing his Cessna airplane, his life has certainly been charmed and interesting.
Joe Heater’s first childhood memory is going to a train station in the middle of the night to welcome his father home after his service as a Navy Seabee in World War II.
Like most Americans he remembers the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sunday afternoon, December 7, 1941, found him lying on the living room floor in front of the radio listening to “The Shadow”, a vigilante crime fighter.
Brandt’s path started in January 1969 with basic training at Ft. Polk, La. In March he transferred to Ft. Wolters, Texas, to begin the six-month long Warrant Officer Candidate (WOC) school, which included helicopter training in the OH-23 Raven.
John knew that if he were drafted he would most likely be placed in the Army for a two year term. So at the age of 19 he headed to the recruitment office and signed up for a four year commitment in the Navy.
The 2025 season is complete! Thanks to the selfless efforts of our more than one thousand volunteers, Honor Flight Chicago successfully brought 779 senior war heroes to Washington, D.C., across seven flights this year.
Walter “Bud” Guest was born in Philadelphia. After graduation from high school Bud was encouraged by one of his teachers to apply to the US Coast Guard Academy. He was accepted in 1968, right out of high school, with a full scholarship to attend the Academy.
William Maxie Blair, who goes by Max, grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Englewood neighborhood. He has a younger brother who also served in the Army during Vietnam. Both brothers will be traveling together with Honor Flight Chicago in October.
Some experiences leave a lasting mark. For Mike DeSmedt, his tour of duty in Vietnam is one of them. Still, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again. “I had to do something I wouldn’t have volunteered for,” he says.
Andrew C. “Andy” Reitz witnessed the “fireworks” of the 1968 Tet Offensive from his Seabee barracks at Da Nang. He personified the Seabee “Can Do” attitude as a journeyman carpenter, equipment operator and construction foreman.
Chris Argianas was born in Cicero, Illinois on April 3, 1934. Both of Chris’ parents were immigrants from Greece. Chris and his family stayed in Cicero for twelve years before moving to Brookfield, Illinois, where his parents had their own little family store.
Growing up, Gilbert High dreamed of being a journalist or perhaps a teacher, and while he didn’t envision the Army being the key to achieving those goals, that’s exactly what happened.
He’s a vagabond, a nomad, a traveler. He has lived in Costa Rica, in Thailand, in Cuba, on a sailboat in the Caribbean, even in the Cayman Islands. But he has never owned a house. He is a pilot, a scuba diver, a motorcycle rider, a ham radio operator with friends all over the world.
Daniel Burress still remembers the icy snow and the sting of the gusty wind. He was among hundreds of Marine recruits stuck high on a mountain in Southern California. Their two-week, cold weather war games were over but they weren’t going anywhere.
Our penultimate mission of 2025 was both our 125th flight and marked the 12,000th senior war hero we have transported to Washington, D.C., in honor of their service and sacrifice for our nation.
John Stajic was the only child of immigrant parents. John‘s mother immigrated from Borning, Germany and his father from Yugoslavia. The Stajics immigrated to the United States after John was born in Germany. While John was not a citizen, he was able to join the United States Navy in 1967
For a long time, Frank Trout didn’t know the whole story of how he was shot in the head and left for dead on a riverbed in a thick, black, steaming Vietnamese jungle. Or how he was later sealed and zipped into a body bag—yet managed to make it out alive.