Making Good Season 6 Episode 8 Recap: Honor Flight
Kirby joins the Utah chapter of Honor Flight to take Veterans to Washington, D.C. for a one-in-a-lifetime tour of their Capitol, war memorials, and finally give them the heartfelt welcome home they deserve.
Ready to help honor these Veterans, Kirby arrives at the Provo Airport for a job interview with Utah Honor Flight Director Stephanie Harmon. Stephanie has made it her mission to take Veterans from all military backgrounds, including World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans, to see the memorials that were built in their honor. With the support and sponsorships of local Utah businesses, Utah Honor Flight is able to provide trips to Washington, D.C. to about 300 Veterans per year.
With national hubs in almost every single state, Stephanie explains the importance of the program to Kirby.
“Most of them don’t have the means to get back there so for them to be able to visit that memorial and be able to see their buddies that are on there,” she tells him. “To be able to honor them has given a lot of them closure.”
Before Kirby is able to join the team as a Volunteer Staff Member, Stephanie sends him to a makeshift bootcamp for an endurance test. Because volunteers and guardians are crucial to pulling off these trips, making sure each Veteran has everything they need and is safe in everything that they do, Utah Honor Flight board member Ron Ulberg is making sure Kirby is prepared for the trip.
When asked what exactly it is that motivates Ron, a Veteran himself, to dedicate so much of his time to helping others, he doesn’t hesitate: “All you have to do is see their faces. When a Vietnam vet is standing next to the wall and sees the name of his buddy, anything we do is more than worth it. Whatever we can do to make this happen.”
After rigorous testing, including balancing on log and moving heavy luggage, Kirby is ready to join the Utah Honor Flight family.
It’s an early start as Veterans, guardians, and Honor Flight staff begin arriving at the airport at 4:30 AM for check-in. With 71 Veterans on the flight accompanied by their 71 guardians, Kirby’s first assignment is serving breakfast, where he begins to meet the remarkable Veterans on-board for this trip, including U.S. Army Veteran John Hastings.
Hastings served in the US Army from 1968-1971, marking 54 years since his return from Vietnam.
“Time goes by so fast,” he tells Kirby. “It’s been a long time coming, I never thought I’d see the day.”
Hastings says the opportunity to go on this trip is beyond his wildest dreams, after the suffering he’s endured over the years. Often, he’ll “look back and remember everything about that place,” noting he suffered from nightmares for a decade because of the things he’d seen at war.
“I thought I was going crazy, I thought I’d never be sane again,” he tells Kirby. Now, hoping to get closure on this trip, Hastings says finally getting recognition makes up for a lot of the adversity he faced. “I thought it was such an honor to even be thought about…being able to go to your Capitol, which I only seen on TV. I never thought I’d ever see it in person.”
The day is emotional from the start, and excitement fills the air as Veterans begin to board the plane amidst the band playing triumphantly.
On the plane, Kirby’s next task is delivering the mail call packets, as Honor Flight has asked family, friends, neighbors, and students to write notes of gratitude to the Veterans. With tears filling their eyes, they begin to read their letters.
“Mail call was the highlight for me because when I was in the service, my family never wrote to me,” says 90 year-old Navy Veteran Robert Singson. “The only time I ever got mail was either on my birthday or Christmas, so I averaged two letters a year. In fact, I would never go to mail call because I knew there wouldn’t be any mail from my family.”
But Robert’s son and guardian on the trip, Kevin, says this time is different: his entire family, including sons, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren all wrote to Robert. “It was so touching because they were able to express things that they never expressed before: how grateful they were for his service.”
Once the flight lands in Baltimore, Kirby works quickly to get all the luggage loaded into the buses so Honor Flight can head to D.C. The first stop of the day is the Marine Corps War Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial.
Kirby sits down with Korean War Veteran Jay Bennett and his son Steve, to reflect on the Veteran’s first time at the monument.
“This is an honor for me just to be able to do this with my dad,” says Steve. “I’ve learned to be who I am, and what I strive to be, because of this man right here.”
“Steve was born when I was over in Germany. He was nine months old before I saw him,” Jay tells Kirby before recalling his homecoming, getting emotional while remembering what it was like to see the Statue of Liberty as they arrived at New York Harbor. “It was special. You knew it was worth what you did.”
On day two, Honor Flight received special permission from Arlington National Park for the Veterans to experience the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
Stephanie says this is one of the main parts of the trip their Veterans look forward to, proved as caretakers and Veterans watched teary eyed together.
“You just felt a reverence because you knew what they’d gone through,” says Jay.
Next, at the National Mall and Memorial Parks, caretakers and Veterans bond together while visiting the World War II, Lincoln, Korean War, and Vietnam memorials.
“Our Vietnam wall for Vietnam Veterans is super emotional,” says Stephanie.
“That is such an incredible place. It has the names of all those who were killed in Vietnam, these Veterans can go by and they can find the names of their buddies, people that they knew,” adds Ron. “For some of them, it’s really closure and it’s special.”
Ralph Morgan, who served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, is looking for three names of people he served with while accompanied by son Jeff, “To me, all those things were a lifetime ago. When I look back at it…some of those memories are still pretty vivid.”
When asked what it means to see those names on the wall, Ralph says it's “surreal” before explaining to Kirby how his entire experience with the Air Force was tied to faith, feeling protected by God while holding his faith. “Here I am in my 90s...It’s paid off.”
Now, the Veterans are ready to return back to Utah for their grand welcome home, an opportunity for the welcome home they always deserved.
“Today, a Veteran, or somebody in the military wears his uniform with pride through the airport. They came home and their uniforms went in the garbage or maybe in a suitcase on the shelf in the garage and never to be seen again,” Ron says. “Some of them, it’s their first real welcome home, when they feel like they were honored.”
“They don’t know what to expect,” Stephanie says excitedly back in Utah. “They think there’s going to be maybe their wife, maybe a couple of kids, they’re not expecting to turn the corner and hear our military 23rd Army Band, then turn another corner and see an entire row of families with banners and posters and balloons, and little kids that are standing there saluting and waving flags.”
As Veterans begin deboarding the plane, the Veterans begin finding their families and friends, with the love and appreciation beginning to fill the air.
“It was so moving to me to see those hundreds of people in the airport cheering us on,” Robert Singson says. “Thank you, thank you, thank you to those that have supported us.”
“I was so struck with awesomeness that I couldn't even speak. It was like my eyes turned into waterfalls,” adds John Hastings. “All I could do was say ‘Thank you, thank you,’ I felt like my heart was coming through my chest when people were recognizing me for something that I did, because I never got the recognition, ever.”
“This is the homecoming they all deserve. Every single one of them,” says Ron. “I think we do a pretty good job of giving them at least a small sense of what it should've been. And that we’re grateful for what they’ve done.”
Stream the episode now, and stay tuned for more brand new episodes of Making Good, premiering Sundays on BYUtv.
