BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Maine soldiers are going home.
Home to places where shrines have been built to honor their sacrifice and that of their predecessors.
For the final time in 2022, Honor Flight Maine flew 109 veterans, volunteers, and so-called "guardians" to Baltimore and Washington, DC. The guardians are family members or volunteers who accompany each veteran, as many of the honored guests are aging.
Stanley Pelletier traveled from the far northern Aroostook County town of St. Francis to make the Friday morning flight out of Portland. He went reluctantly, at the insistence of his wife. But the drive was not what impeded him.
"I never wanted to see the wall," he said quietly about the Vietnam veterans memorial in Washington, D.C.
"I never wore a Vietnam hat until, maybe six or seven months ago," he added. "Because I was always ashamed of it, I guess. "It made you feel that way, you know. I just started wearing one," he said as his somber face became a smile.
Pelletier noted a generation of Vietnam vets were made to feel ashamed of their service at the time. Pelletier was glad he finally gave in to his wife and joined his peers on the trip. It seemed the country was glad too.
On Friday, the group received a hero's welcome wherever they went.
They were served breakfast at the Portland International Jetport before departing; as each vet was wheeled off of the plane in Baltimore, nearby passengers in the terminal clapped and cheered. The group was bussed to Fort Mead for dinner, and uniformed soldiers formed two lines to shake their hands and welcome them.
They visited Fort McHenry and heard a hero's story. There in 1814, Francis Scott Key watched the fort’s bombardment by the British and began writing the Star Spangled Banner as Old Glory came into view through the gunpowder smoke.
As the first day wound down, the vets began thinking of Saturday, a decidedly more emotionally taxing day, as they expected a trip to monuments in Washington to honor the fallen.
"The changing of the guard, that’s going to be very impressive," Albert Lake, a Vietnam veteran, said. "And, of course, going to the wall, because I have some buddies’ names that are on the wall — and it’s very powerful."
But, for Friday night, they smiled and sang together, and enjoyed this long-awaited trip.