William ‘Bill’ Koc: Learning to Fly
marc.zarefsky2024-07-21T21:32:59-05:00William “Bill” Koc was born in the city of Stickney, IL in October 1946. Bill was one of twelve children (being #3 himself). He remembers always being surrounded by family.
Thomas ‘Tom’ Kelly: ‘We like tough guys’
marc.zarefsky2024-07-21T21:21:00-05:00Tom Kelly grew up in Oak Lawn, then moved to Chicago where his father was a Chicago police officer. Tom was the middle child of 3. There were family members who also served in the military.
Donald McCollough: The Art of Firefighting
marc.zarefsky2024-07-21T21:14:10-05:00Donald W. McCollough, born near the small town of Jewett, Illinois, was the middle child of a family of eight. His parents, Harold and Ethel, worked on a farm that grew sugar cane.
Highlights from our 115th flight
marc.zarefsky2024-06-27T21:37:03-05:00On June 19, 112 senior veterans boarded Southwest Flight 8037 bound for Washington’s Dulles International Airport and their long-awaited Day of Honor, Thanks and Inspiration with Honor Flight Chicago. Four Korean War veterans and 108 Vietnam War veterans comprised that total.
Jerome and Richard Corcoran: A Band of Brothers
marc.zarefsky2024-06-25T22:26:45-05:00The Corcoran brothers grew up on the far south side of Chicago in a family of 11 children. Jerome (Jerry) was number 9 and Richard (Rich) was number 10 of 11 children. There were seven boys and four girls in the family.
Dan Rittenhouse: Service in multiple languages
marc.zarefsky2024-06-25T22:24:55-05:00The eldest of eight children, Dan Rittenhouse learned early on how to adapt and serve – two themes that played major roles in his military career and throughout his life.
Daniel ‘Sarge’ Syniar: ‘A Million-Dollar Wound’
marc.zarefsky2024-06-25T22:23:59-05:00Sarge was on patrol in Vietnam walking point with his M-60 down a narrow trail. A tracer round whizzed, cracked, past him to his right. He immediately rotated his body to the left when a second round hit him in the chest exiting through his back just missing his lung.
Daniel Sowonik: ‘All gave some and some gave all’
marc.zarefsky2024-06-25T22:20:40-05:00Daniel Edward Sowonik was born on October 16, 1947. For the first 14 years of his life (as an only child) Daniel lived in a small town in Wisconsin, north of Wisconsin Dells, with his parents and grandparents.
Richard O’Connor: ‘How the hell did I survive all that?’
marc.zarefsky2024-06-11T22:37:47-05:00When you drive up to the lovely Lemont home of Dick and Pat O'Connor, you are greeted by blooming flowers in a meticulously landscaped yard, a White Sox flag in the front garden, and the U.S. flag flying high.
Richard Hanson: Learning lessons in a war zone
marc.zarefsky2024-06-11T22:35:39-05:00Lessons learned in a war zone can last you a lifetime, assuming you make it home alive. Sergeant Dick Hanson learned quickly that taking pictures from the turret of a tank on the front lines of Korea can get you killed.
Jerome Koutny: Heading into the tunnels
marc.zarefsky2024-06-11T22:29:35-05:00Jerome Koutny was sent to Vietnam as an infantryman and then volunteered for one of the more dangerous jobs as a tunnel rat, looking for the enemy by going into their tunnels.
Bob Walker: Stationed on Vietnam’s southeast corner
marc.zarefsky2024-06-21T12:04:27-05:00Bob Walker’s father was a career Navy man who served on a minesweeper clearing obstacles before D-Day and then spent the days after the invasion recovering bodies and parts of bodies from the water.
Highlights from our 114th flight
marc.zarefsky2024-05-23T22:23:13-05:00Our 114th flight and the second of the 2024 season saw 115 veterans travel together to Washington, D.C., on May 15. Among them were one WWII Veteran, one Korean War veteran, and 113 Vietnam Veterans.
Greg Dittemore: Danger, Chance & Reconciliation
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T21:53:18-05:00Suddenly, the still, black night exploded. Air Force Sgt. Greg Dittemore heard a big boom, as a flash that looked like lightning crackled across the sky.
Bob Gatenby: ‘They didn’t know I was out in the field’
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T21:36:56-05:00Robert “Bob” Gatenby’s wife and family thought he was comfortably stationed in a base camp during his time in Vietnam. His reality, however, was the exact opposite.
Robert Carnagey: Providing hope in combat
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T20:25:16-05:00Bob Carnagey arrived in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. Even though he was a non-combatant, he said death was all around him
Richard Shannon: ‘God was with me’
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T20:11:30-05:00This story begins with a young boy from the southside of Chicago. As he lies in his bed, looking at the church steeples just outside his bedroom window, he dreams of one day becoming a Catholic priest.
James Duhig: ‘The luckiest SOB alive’
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T09:33:47-05:00When James stepped off the plane from Vietnam and his feet touched the ground in Hawaii, he got on his knees and kissed the ground. He remembers thinking to himself “you are the luckiest SOB alive”.
Dennis Mitzner: Dedicating a life of service to his country
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T09:32:22-05:00Dennis' first deployment came in 1968, in Turkey on the Black Sea Coast. He was responsible for monitoring missiles and spacecraft. There was only one adversary when he was first deployed; there were two at the end of his service.
Bill Holic Jr.: Riding the waves
marc.zarefsky2024-05-14T09:27:41-05:00Guantánamo Bay, Cuba/Bermuda/ Pearl Harbor/San Diego/Norfolk/ Vietnam — Fortunately, Bill Holic, Jr., liked to travel and travel he did. Thirty years in the Navy certainly gives him the title of “lifer”.