Kevin Boyle, a veteran of Vietnam, went to Washington, D.C. last week as part of the Honor Flight program. Telling us about the trip, Boyle mentioned he’d never been through as many red lights as he was on that trip courtesy of their police escort.
Boyle said the only thing that would’ve made the trip better was if his wife could’ve come with. “If I could go tomorrow, I would again,” said Boyle. “The flight would’ve been much better, my wife has dementia, if she could’ve gone it would’ve been beautiful. We were stationed at Washington, D.C. in 1960 at Marine Headquarters. Of course, they didn’t have the monuments then. I was there for a year and then went down to Quantico, VA. Our first daughter was born at Bethesda, MD.”
They say it’s a small world and that was true on the trip for Boyle as he reconnected with someone from his hometown on the flight. “I got a call from a lady that worked for the honor flight and she asked me if I still wanted to go,” said Boyle. “I said ‘you’re doggone right I want to go’. On the plane, I was looking through the book and here I found a buddy of mine from the same town. We grew up together. I went to school with his brother and sister, so we had a good talk. Then when we landed in Washington, D.C. there was a welcoming crowd. Oh my gosh, you talk about being proud.”
A Marine, Boyle said the Iwo Jima Memorial was special. “The first day it wasn’t too bad as far as the heat was concerned,” said Boyle. “We drove around and saw the sights and went to the Iwo Jima Memorial. Being a Marine that was my pride and joy there. We drove around quite a bit and then went back to the hotel. We got a big sit down dinner and entertainment with a couple of sisters. And could they sing. They started out with World War II, then Korea and then the modern day and it was just beautiful.”
Despite the temperature soaring into the 90s the second day, Boyle said the group of veterans visited several more memorials. “We started out with the Vietnam wall and I found three people from Crookston that passed away,” said Boyle. “There was a Normandin, an Anderson and a Bye from Euclid. I knew his brother Billy really well so that was my main goal to see his brother. But Billy passed away too. We went from there up to the Korean Memorial and that was breathtaking to see the statues of these infantrymen walking through the rice paddies. From there we went to the WWII Memorial and that was breathtaking.”
It was a great trip said, Boyle, but the biggest thing was seeing the people gathered when they returned home. “The biggest thing was when we got back to Fargo,” said Boyle. “You should’ve seen the people that were there. The National Guard in their uniform, the Knights of Columbus in their uniform, kids waving flags, it was just amazing.”
