Long after the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953, American service members like Bill Fireside were still fighting on the peninsula -- though their weapon of choice was not a firearm or a mortar but the power of the pen.

John Lee's Air Force basic training testing in 1955 revealed a hidden skill: an aptitude for foreign languages. After a year of intensive courses in Russian, he took those skills -- and a top-secret clearance -- to the border with East Germany to listen in on Soviet pilots flying overhead.

On July 14, 1966, Duane Buttell, Jr., was the "Guy in Back" of an F-4 fighter escorting F-105s to a target over North Vietnam. Suddenly, several enemy MiG-21s appeared. The rest is literal history.

Army Sergeant Jim Davidson arrived in Vietnam in March of 1968 with the intensity of the Tet Offensive still at a fever pitch. Jim stepped into the 101st Airborne as a replacement troop and soon found out why that unit's casualty rate was so high.

From late 1956 through the summer of 1957, Army veteran Joseph Varanauski held the esteemed position of Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Listen in as Joe reveals what it means to live by the creed "my standard will remain perfection."

Honor Flight Chicago has now flown over 10,600 senior war veterans to Washington, D.C., to celebrate their service and give them the proper Welcome Home they never received. That number is big -- possibly impenetrable -- but each one of those heroes has a story.

David Mann's father was in Vietnam for only a short time when he was killed in a rocket attack months before his namesake son would be born stateside. The younger Mann has spent his life getting to know his dad, recently becoming involved with a group of Gold Star children called Sons and Daughters in Touch.

Norm Bowens and Mike Masello served in Vietnam at different times and at different places. Still, they each brought something home so common to veterans who served in combat: PTSD. Many years later, a chance encounter around a specific chair at a group meeting led the two to become fast friends and brothers.

Jim Parker grew up an Air Force brat. When the time came for him to join the Air Force during the Vietnam War, his assigned role was not one he had ever heard of. Instead of VC and NVA, Jim's adversaries were much smaller and more pervasive: mosquitoes.

Dante Plata grew up in the church and fell in love with music and the guitar at an early age. Later, while serving at a hospital for wounded Vietnam War service members, Dante turned to his music for healing -- both for himself and for the benefit of those he cared for.

Howard Cain was so eager to serve in WWII that he forged his parents' signatures to enlist at 17 toward the end of the war. Later, as a flight engineer on a B-29 Superfortress following Japan's surrender, Cain was aboard a reconnaissance flight over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Honor Flight Chicago flew its 10,000th senior war hero to Washington D.C., on May 10, 2023. Each of them has an individual story of service and sacrifice. Learn Purple Heart recipient Raymond Szweda's as you follow him throughout his much deserved Day of Honor during which he "learned that it's ok to ask for help."