Otsego County Veteran Journeys to Washington on Honor Flight

By WILLIAM BELLEN
HUDSON VALLEY

Shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 18, 80 veterans from across and beyond the Hudson Valley gathered at New York Stewart International Airport to board Mission 37 of the Hudson Valley Honor Flight program. This American Airlines charter plane was bound for Washington, D.C. to bring these veterans, their guardians, and event staff on an all-expenses paid tour of the many memorials of the nation’s capital.

The Hudson Valley Honor Flight, based out of Walden, is one of more than 100 hubs for Honor Flights across the country. On its website, the nationwide nonprofit details a vision of all American veterans receiving honor and gratitude for their service, with their primary goal being the “celebrat[tion of] America’s veterans by inviting them to share in a day of honor at our nation’s memorials.” Flights typically consist of 75-80 veterans, each having an accompanying guardian and some trained event and medical staff present at all times. Honor Flight events regularly gather sizable crowds of both families and volunteers who come out to support loved ones and those who protected their freedoms.

“This place was packed. There were people wall to wall. The buses brought them in from Montgomery with a motorcycle escort, police…It’s a very emotional, patriotic thing,” recounted Bill Bassett, an Honor Flight volunteer and Vietnam-era veteran. “When you land in Washington, there’s volunteers all over the place to help with wheelchairs. Where’s the elevator? Where’s the bathrooms? So there’s volunteers on both ends. There’s quite an operation.”

“It’s so rewarding,” Bassett continued. “Most of [the staff] are veterans, but not all. I went on the flight last year, and it was a very patriotic, emotional day, all day long.”

Bill Kirnan, an Airforce strategic air command veteran from the Vietnam era and original Hudson Valley Honor Flight charter board member from 2012, shared Honor Flight information and his thoughts on the program.

“There’s no cost for veterans. Every veteran is accompanied by at least one guardian,” Kirnan explained. “Each of the guardians we ask for a donation of $500.00, so they pay some of it. But one of our main supporters is ShopRite. ShopRite usually gives us over $100,000.00 a year, so they are a major supporter.”

“We see them off in the morning and they’re figuring all right, we’re going for a trip. But when they come home after the full day down there, it’s rather emotional, and we have things on board that they don’t even know about, like mail call,” Kirnan continued. “So we’ve reached out to all the family members [and] said write a letter to your veteran, thanking him or her for their service. So you’ll see, we call them ‘Hudson Valley Honor Flight allergies.’ That’s when the tears start, because you become emotional, seeing these guys reading the mail…So the welcome home is really one of the best [parts], because they will not expect it.”

Among the people attending Mission 37 were numerous Vietnam and Cold War-era veterans, as well as a handful of Korean War veterans and even a 100-year-old vet from World War II who simply went by “Bud.” Among the Vietnam veterans present was Bill Bellen, a Marine Corps sergeant who served from 1962-1969. Bellen has been a longtime resident of Otsego County and, during his time in the service, saw deployment at Guantanamo Bay, Okinawa, and in the early stages of the conflict in Vietnam.

Bellen recounted that the main speaker on the flight announced, “We have a person from Otsego County who’s traveled the farthest to get here. He said, and in our midst, we have a person who was bitten by a snake in Vietnam. He says, we’ve had wounded, but we’ve never had anyone on our Honor Flight bitten by a snake. Both of those were me…Later on at the dinner, he [said] they want to let you know that the first Americans officially in Vietnam [were] 3,000 Marines that made an amphibious landing. Well, that was me. And then he said the first major combat operation of Vietnam was Operation Starlite. That was me. And I told him afterward. He said, ‘boy, that really is a coincidence.”

After touching down in Washington, the veterans were taken by bus throughout the city. Their destinations included, but were not limited to: the Marine Corps Memorial; Arlington Cemetery, to view the changing of the guard; the Washington Monument; the Vietnam Women’s Memorial; and the memorials for each of the major conflicts of the 20th century. Each stop allowed time for the veterans to get out and take photos, and in some cases find the names of their fallen comrades on the many plaques adorning each memorial.

By 8 p.m., back at Stewart Airport, a crowd that filled the entire baggage claim area and beyond had gathered to welcome the veterans upon their return. People of all ages held flags, made signs, and sprinkled red, white, and blue decorations of every variety throughout the space.

As families gathered near the aisles down which the veterans would be making their triumphant returns, Cardenal Johnson—son of 92-year-old Korean War veteran, Army medic, and Air Force strategic air command member Donald Johnson—shared what the event meant to him.

“You should have been here this morning. It was beautiful…It’s something to endure because back then, World War I and World War II, they gave them a celebration down in New York City…but they never did that to my father,” Cardenal recounted. “When he came home, off with the uniform, work…But just the experience [for] him and the chartered buses, it was beautiful. I teared [up] a little bit because my father’s still alive.”

Cardenal went on to explain some of his father’s visceral combat experiences, and said that he hoped the flight and memorial visits would help to give his father some closure.

Finally, the moment arrived and veterans began their walk through the baggage claim to pick up their final mail parcels. Chants of “U.S.A.” echoed throughout the room as smiles and tears covered the faces of the honorable men and women entering. Each veteran walked down an entry aisle flanked on either side by dozens of applauding onlookers to pick up their last pieces of mail. Afterward, they ventured down the exit aisle and out to the front of the baggage terminal, where family members and buses awaited the veterans to either take them home or to a hotel for the evening.

Bellen was surprised by 11 members of his family who greeted him as he was brought into the baggage claim by his guardian, Louis Cascino Jr. He thanked Cascino for pushing his wheelchair throughout Washington and keeping pace with the rest of the group.

“I’m not a very emotional person, but you could have knocked me over with a feather because I had no idea. You know, maybe one or two, not the whole darn family.”

As the event wrapped up for the night, veterans who had become newfound friends parted ways with firm handshakes and passionate hugs. Honor Flight staff considered the night a resounding success, speaking of their continued gratitude to the veterans they volunteered to serve.

“Any veteran out there, please sign on board,” Kirnan said. “Right now, there’s about a year-and-a-half to two-year wait, but we do give priority to those that served previous to the others. So even though we’re accepting now up through Vietnam era, if you [are] World War II, you’re going to get priority…Anybody can come. If you’ve got medical issues with IVs, we can make it work. So if you’re incapacitated in a wheelchair, we’ll make it work. You talk to our safety team and they’ll make it work. I don’t know if anybody has ever been turned away for a medical reason.”

Those interested in reaching out to the Hudson Valley Honor Flight about potential veteran or guardian participants can do so at https://hvhonorflight.com/.

Reporter William Bellen is the grandson of Vietnam veteran USMC Sgt. Bill Bellen. Both are residents of the Goodyear Lake community in the Town of Milford.

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