On 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.
The 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.
The 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.
Sarge 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 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.
When 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.
Lessons 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 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’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.