T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, Marshalltown veterans Dave Hellberg, Kevin Huseboe, Bill McLain, Steve Schmidt and Steve Storjohann recently participated in the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight from Cedar Rapids to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, May 12.

Five Marshalltown veterans — Dave Hellberg, Kevin Huseboe, Bill McLain, Steve Schmidt and Steve Storjohann — embarked on a lengthy but worthwhile journey last Tuesday when they participated in the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., departing from the Cedar Rapids Airport at around 6 a.m. and returning the same day around 10 p.m.

Storjohann, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam Era from 1965 to 1969 and is actively involved with local veterans’ groups, said he was immediately impressed with the sendoff the large group received in Cedar Rapids from law enforcement at both the city and county level and fire departments.

“Anybody that wore a badge, they lined up when we went down to get on the plane. Nobody ever saluted me ever. I wasn’t (at) a rank to do that,” he said. “That really got to me.”

He was also moved by the letters that schoolchildren who were in Washington for a field trip wrote to the veterans and handed out to them after they arrived. For McLain, who spent three years on active duty in the Army before serving 10 years in the National Guard — spending 1970 and 1971 in Vietnam — the welcome was “overwhelming” and “really heartfelt.”

“(It was) one of the most memorable things of my life,” he said.

Schmidt, a draftee, served in the Army from 1968 to 1970, while Hellberg was in the Navy from 1969 to 1975. Huseboe, the current Marshall County Veterans Affairs Director, served in the Army in 1974 and 1975. Although Storjohann was never in Vietnam himself, he felt that the welcome the group received when they returned to the Cedar Rapids Airport should ease the pain of any lingering hard feeling some veterans may feel.

“There were 400 people in the airport waiting for us, and every one of them said welcome home. That should take the edge off of some of the people that were there, because it was quite a site,” he said.

And the welcome to Washington was equally spectacular, with fire trucks shooting water cannons upon their arrival. Huseboe and McLain had visited the city before, but this experience will stick with all of them for years to come.

“I was so impressed by the way the staff of the Honor Flight handled everything. They made sure you were fed. They made sure you had plenty of water. There were a lot of wheelchairs involved, and everything was clockwork,” Schmidt said.

McLain added that both the Cedar Rapids and Washington Honor Flight staff were “top notch.” Last Tuesday’s flight was the 59th total out of Cedar Rapids. To learn more about the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight, visit https://eihonorflight.org/.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.