Local veteran returns from Honor Flight

RITZVILLE – After a two-day "Honor Flight" tour, Army veteran Lamar Thiel returned to the Spokane International airport on Tuesday evening, Oct. 4. The tour celebrated roughly 120 soldiers, sailors, and airmen who served during American's wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Attendees also included two World War II veterans, "one of whom landed on the beaches of Normandy at age 19," Thiel said.

Their flight departed Spokane on Monday morning and landed at Dulles airport 5.5 hours later. Soon after arrival, the group checked into a hotel, ate a tasty meal, and started touring. They visited the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, as well as World War II, Vietnam, Iwo Jima, Air Force, and WACS (Women's Army Corps) museums and memorials.

"The Air Force museum was new and especially impressive," he said. "Outside were three stainless steel spires representing contrails of Air Force jets that reached hundreds of feet into the air."

The "changing of the guards" at Arlington Cemetery was also notable, and as a former groundskeeper, Thiel enjoyed the cemetery's lovely landscaping.

"We saw beautiful grounds with winding sidewalks and roads. Very picturesque," he said. An artist himself, Thiel honed in on the details of metal statues, including the stitching on uniforms and a realistic depiction of a crushed canteen holder.

At the memorials, the veterans scanned the names of people who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

"I found the name of Jerry Kulm from Ritzville and my cousin Richard Heimbigner, who fought in the Korean war," he said.

Kulm was a 1967 graduate of Ritzville High School who died in Vietnam on May 5, 1970.

To his surprise, two other local veterans met up with Thiel on the tour: Dusty Van Vleet (Ritzville High School, class of 1962) and Sam Duncan, former owner of Ritzville Drug. The trio rode different busses but joined one another at memorial stops.

After spending Monday night at the hotel, the group boarded their return flight, arriving in Spokane late Tuesday evening.

"There were probably 100 people at the airport cheering and clapping," Thiel said. "That was a nice ending to the trip."