Highlights from our 109th flight
marc.zarefsky2023-07-25T12:33:59-05:00On a sultry day in D.C., 111 veterans comprising one WWII, [...]
Duane Buttell, Jr.: Guy In Back for a Mig-21 Victory
marc.zarefsky2023-07-10T22:13:24-05:00Bastille Day, July 14, 1966, a day Duane Buttell, Jr. will remember forever! He was flying in the lead F-4 of four fighters tasked to provide MiG cover for three F-105s (“Thuds”) attacking surface to air missile (SAM) sites near Hanoi.
James Hoder Jr. and James Hoder Sr.: The Navy is a Family Affair
marc.zarefsky2023-07-10T22:08:21-05:00The Navy is a family affair for the Hoders. James Sr. and James Jr. have the distinction of being just the second father/son duo to fly as honored veterans together on an Honor Flight Chicago mission.
Scott Phillips: Yellow Shirt Aboard the ‘Tico’
marc.zarefsky2023-07-10T22:00:28-05:00“I had the best time of my life. I would do it all over and I wouldn’t change nothin. I got to see the world and I’ve got brothers.” Those are the words of Scott Phillips 50 years after serving aboard the USS Ticonderoga in the early 1970s.
Fred Cagle: A Free Spirit Becomes an Army Careerist
marc.zarefsky2023-07-10T21:57:26-05:00Coming from a multi-generation family of coal miners, Fred was born in Hazard, Kentucky, to Columbus and Lois Jean Cagle. Watching his father going to work in the mines during his younger years, Fred attended school and assisted his mother with chores around the house.
James “Jim” Davidson: Three Times is Not Always a Charm
marc.zarefsky2023-07-10T21:51:47-05:00On August 5, 1967, Jim Davidson’s draft notice arrived in the mail. Six months later, he was an Army grunt in Vietnam. Now, some 56 years later, he remembers the details of every firefight he was in and still can’t get his arms around the fact he made it home while many of his brothers in arms didn’t.