‘Honor Flights’ carry our veterans to Washington
For as many years as a coffee klatsch for the Antelope Valley’s military family has been going, a retired Korean War veteran has been urging his brothers and sisters to sign up for the Honor Flight program, a national nonprofit that flies older veterans to the nation’s capital for a whirlwind history tour.
Still in his teens, Fred Barthe flew combat air crew from a Navy carrier off the Korean coast. Later, he joined the Coast Guard Reserve, retiring again as a lieutenant commander, but he would also make a pretty good recruiting sergeant.
Since its founding in 2005, the national Honor Flight program has flown more than a quarter-million veterans to Washington for their own personal rendezvous with history.
Last year alone, the program flew 856 World War II veterans. Only a little more than 100,000 of the 16 million troops who served in WWII are still with us. We had two WWII veterans memorialized just last week in the Antelope Valley.
The flights began as a way to honor the “Greatest Generation” veterans who prevailed in history’s biggest war against tyranny.
For several years, with the dwindling of WWII veterans, the Honor Flight program has brought veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars to DC.
During a 72-hour “speed dating” session, the veterans are escorted with great fanfare to see the round of memorials dedicated to those who served our country in wartime. Once they are off the plane, and the bus, the veterans receive a rousing welcome. They even receive a rousing farewell on departure.
Another big welcome is set at the World War II Memorial.
In between, they are escorted to the Vietnam War Memorial, the most visited of monuments on the Washington Mall, and on to the Korean War memorial.
Other stops include Arlington National Cemetery and the Marine Corps and Air Force memorials. The trips are paid for by donations, so there’s no expense to the veteran. Escorts pay their own way.
“You will never be treated so well in your life,” Vietnam War combat veteran Mike Bertell said. “You won’t spend a dime.”
He gave me and my friend, Anthony Kitson, a “mini briefing.” Kitson is known to thousands of martial arts “young champions” across the Valley as “Sensei Tony.”
The title means he served for decades as a teacher who guided youthful white belts on the long path to black belt, or just how to grow up a bit and become good citizens.
Before that, Kitson served the US government for decades, starting in the Army at the end of the Korean War, and finishing his tour in Southeast Asia 23 years later, after the Vietnam War ended. His service meant he was eligible for the Honor Flight, with me as sidekick.
My Army hitch began at the end of the Vietnam War. Between Kitson and me, we had the privilege to serve in hot spots of the long Cold War and its aftermath.
He was on the last flight out of Thailand after a post-Vietnam military coup. I was on the first flight out of Baghdad that I could hitch a ride on, after a nasty insurgent attack at the airport. Whew!
Honor Flight Kern County is sponsoring our scheduled April flight to Washington with dozens of our brother and sister vets.
We processed paperwork at a Bakersfield church where a Vietnam vet named Jack Fetter welcomed us with a smile. He served in Vietnam in 1967.
Our host interviewer grew fascinated by Kitson’s story of a childhood robbed by Hitler during the Battle of Britain, then of coming to America as a teen, joining the Army and heading off to Asia for 23 years’ service in a hot zone with the Department of the Army.
To quote Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”
And it is not over. Yet.
Dennis Anderson is a licensed clinical social worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army veteran, he deployed with the California National Guard to cover the Iraq War for the Antelope Valley Press. He serves on the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission.