Two area veterans visit war memorials in Washington D.C. thanks to Honor Flight

By Charles Bolinger

Editor • For Gary Koenig and Mike Portell, it was a dream trip. The pair of Army veterans flew from St. Louis to Washington D.C. on April 1 as part of an Honor Flight.

Honor Flight was created with a simple, yet powerful, mission – honoring our nation’s veterans by bringing them to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials built to commemorate their service and sacrifice. The Honor Flight Network was co-founded by Jeff Miller and Earl Morse. It was a special honor for veterans to attend in conjunction with the nation’s 250th birthday this year. (please scroll down; article continues beyond photo below)

Portell is from Marine while Koenig is from Hamel. They and their wives, Ruth Portell and Sharon Koenig, visited with a reporter on April 16 at the Troy Senior Citizen Center to recount the experience. Portell served for 61 months while Koenig served for two years. Portell served as a military policeman during peacetime while Koenig spent two years in the Vietnam in field communications.

Portell covered most of the story with help from his wife while Koenig delivered the color commentary and his wife contributed other details. The pair of veterans were two of 88 veterans assigned to this flight.

“We got to the airport at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Portell began, meaning St. Louis Lambert International Airport. They got their name tags and each tag had a different QR code that was linked to each veteran’s profile. Their profile included all current medications and other health information in case of an emergency, Koenig added.

After eating breakfast at the airport they loaded the plane for a 5:30 a.m. departure. The flight was about 80 minutes plus the hour shift ahead in time, so they arrived between 7:40 and 8 a.m. eastern daylight time.

The local fire department was on the tarmac, ready to salute the veterans on the flight with water cannons upon their arrival. 

They said four tour buses awaited the veterans at Dulles International Airport. Staff-wise, the men said there were escorts, guardians, two doctors, four nurses, four professional photographers and assistants. 

They started their trip at the Lincoln Memorial. “Most of us were in our wheelchairs, so they put us in front of the steps and had a flag-folding ceremony,” Portell said.

They had a bit of free time after that where visitors could divert to the Vietnam Wall or to the Korean War Monument. Those who could climb steps remained at the Lincoln Memorial.

Those who had assigned escorts could not be more than arm’s length away from them. A woman named Leanne was Gary’s escort while a man named Kyle was Mike’s escort.

“I couldn’t get away from her,” Koenig joked. “I’m sure you drove her nuts, too,” Portell quipped.

For veterans who don’t have any family members to accompany them, they are assigned a guardian, the wives explained. 

Boxed lunches were up next on the agenda at a pavilion. Once re-loaded on the buses, they stopped at the Arlington National Cemetery next to see the famous Changing of the Guard.

“You know why they wear dark glasses?” Koenig asked. “They can look out the side of their glasses, either way, and nobody knows which way they’re looking.” He said this was to thwart those who might seek their own 15 seconds of Internet fame by interfering with the changing of the guard process. 

They spent about an hour at the cemetery before clambering back on the buses to visit Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Monument and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Statue.

“We were near the Tidal Basin and all of the cherry blossom trees were on their final stage of blooms,” Portell recalled. They had dinner around then, too.

“The whole day was probably about 85º and nice and sunny,” Portell said. “Just about 20 minutes before we loaded up the buses to go back to the airport, it started sprinkling. It was a perfect day.”

“Then we had to sit on the runway for a long time because of lightning,” his wife remembered.

Both men had more than 100 cards and letters each awaiting them for Mail Call at the airport coming back. Koenig said he received 149 responses.

“I was impressed by people who took the time to fill out a card,” Portell said. His wife added that, “A lot of people they knew sent cards – family friends, and people at church but then he got a lot of cards from people he didn’t even know, even from far away.” 

“We didn’t know we was so popular,” Koenig joked.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office sent the men letters along with Boy Scout Troop 80386 in Troy that sent thank-you cards with stars and grommets. The stars and grommets are from retired American flags. 

Other swag the men received included T-shirts, baseball caps they received at an Honor Flight pre-trip briefing in western St. Louis County and lap quilts made by a Missouri Women’s Quilting Group that creates them for the Honor Flight veterans. Each one was different but they were all patriotic. 

The weather delayed their flight home a couple of hours; they didn’t land until around 10 p.m.

“When we got into Lambert, my sister recorded this,” he said, pulling out his phone to show a video on his phone. A drum-and-bagpipe corps greeted them in full song along with cheers, hollers, applause and cries of support. They went through the entire terminal from the gate and outside. Each veteran could have up to four people attend the homecoming parade.

There are four Honor Flights out of St. Louis per year. Due to the heat, they don’t fly them in July and August, the wives said. 

Koenig said he liked the Changing of the Guard at Arlington and the Vietnam Wall the best. 

“Since I was [last] out there they added on to the wall,” he noted. 

The Korean War Memorial is modeled to replicate statues of men in rice paddies and no matter where you are, the statues’ eyes look right at you, they said. 

“People in the area around the monuments knew who we were because of our shirts and a lot of people would stop to talk to us and ask us what we did,” Portell said. “One little girl with her mom and dad were on vacation and she was learning about the Holocaust.”

Koenig said people in DC stopped them to shake their hands. “Around here, they don’t do that,” he said.

“The organizers knew exactly what to do and when to do it; it was well-organized,” Portell said. “They made it memorable for all of the veterans who were on the plane.”

While initially focused only on America’s World War II veterans, Honor Flight Network now also includes those who served in the military during the Korean and Vietnam War eras, along with veterans of any service era who are critically ill.

Transporting approximately 22,500 veterans annually, Honor Flight Network has flown more than 300,000 veterans to Washington, D.C. since its inception in May 2005.