TAKING FLIGHT

You could see the emotions on his face.

They run deep and the full gamut, from the horrors of war to the rewards of long lasting relationships that come full circle.

“Life’s been good,” said Trent Williams, 82, who is grateful for many things, including being a part of the recent Central Valley Honor Flight #34.

The Honor Flight program is designed to give veterans a chance to travel — for free — to Washington, D.C., and they are catered every step of the way.

Williams was drafted into the Army in 1967 and did training at Ft. Ord. He was then shipped to Vietnam as a combat medic (“Not by choice.”) during the height of the conflict. He spent a year and a half there.

“A real hellhole,” is how he described his feelings when he got off the plane that first day in Vietnam.

Bullets were flying over their heads and Williams was sure he would never make it back home alive.

But he ended up at the VIP hospital, where he would meet celebrities and many other “big wigs” who stopped by.

That, however, did not mean he didn’t see the darkest side of war.

“I didn’t have to kill anybody,” he said, reflecting back on his service.

Quite the way to think about serving in the Army. Though he never had to kill anyone, he saw more than his share of dead bodies and people wounded severely during one of the most controversial wars in the history of America.

Yet he somehow survived, coming back to Mariposa and living that good life as a longtime hairdresser, an occupation he continues to this day.

Taking flight

It was about a year and a half ago when Williams applied to be a part of the Honor Flight program. There will be three this year and he was on the first of those during the trip in late April.

Each flight takes veterans to Washington. Each veteran has to have a guardian, he noted, and his was longtime friend Gary VanMeter.

“I called him my guardian angel,” said Williams.

The average age of veterans on the flight was 80 and the oldest, he said, was a 101-year-old World War II veteran who was as sharp as a whip.

“Unbelievable,” is how Williams described his experience.

From the moment he entered the Fresno Yosemite Airport to the time he returned to that very place, Williams said the Honor Flight program “catered” to their every need.

“Nobody ever carried anything,” he said.

The group arrived in Washington on a Monday evening and stayed at a Hilton Hotel, including a catered BBQ dinner that first night.

The next two days were a whirlwind, getting up (kind of like the military) at 5 a.m. and going all day long. They toured the U.S. Capital, went to the World War II Memorial, the Navy Memorial, the Air and Space Museum for lunch, the National Museum of the Army and then back to the hotel for a catered dinner.

That was the first day.

On the second day, the agenda included a trip to Arlington National Cemetery where they saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, an experience Williams said was quite emotional. They witnessed the Changing of the Guard ceremony, went to the Marine Memorial and then to the Korean War and Vietnam War memorials.

Celebrity treatment

After all of that, they boarded the flight back to Fresno, where they arrived at around 9 p.m.

Even at that hour, Williams said some 1,300 people were at the airport to greet them, capping off a trip where he felt on top of the world.

“I felt like I was a movie star,” said Williams.

He called it “very emotional” in reflecting on the trip as well as his entire life.

“Everyone had a group welcoming us,” he said. “They have got this down to a gnat’s eye.”

Which is the entire point.

The Honor Flight program was founded in 2005 and has been taking veterans to Washington from all over the country even since. More than 300,000 veterans have utilized the program.

He said every need of each person was addressed, whether it was a wheelchair or simple directions. On the tour buses, each veteran was given a picture montage which was placed on their seat.

That’s a far cry from when Williams came home from Vietnam. He came through San Francisco, where he and many of those returning were “spat on” and called names by those against the war.

And then he came to Mariposa, where it was Labor Day weekend and they were asked to be in the parade. Mariposa gave them a warm welcome, he said, cementing his feelings about living here.

The full circle

Even with all of that, Williams has traveled back to Vietnam three times and has grown dearly fond of the Vietnamese people .

He said the people have welcomed him each time; and each time has been better. The younger people, he said, don’t dwell on the war and treat it more like something from their history books.

As Williams said, it was the “government” that was at the root of the war, not the people.

Even though critics remain of that war, Williams believes in the end, everyone has come away in a better place.

He said Vietnam is now a modern country with hard-working people.

“I can’t believe how beautiful of a country it is,” he said.

Williams also recalls, with some humor, how he met celebrities the first time he was over there at that VIP hospital.

He sat next to Bob Hope and Gen. William Westmoreland during one event. He still has high praise for Hope, who he said regularly came to Vietnam to entertain the troops in USO shows.

As for the famed columnist Ann Landers, Williams has a different opinion.

She refused to come into the medical unit, fearing disease and other issues.

“I stopped reading her column after that,” said Williams.

Through all of it, Williams said it was his family and the people of Mariposa who got him through the war as well as guided him to be successful in life.

The program

For Williams, the Honor Flight program, like the war itself, had a big impact on his life.

“It’s a healing,” he said, urging hesitant veterans to get into the program.

One fellow veteran has been reluctant, saying he doesn’t want to relive the horrors of war.

But Williams told him “at the very least,” he could take his son and show him exactly what the soldiers went through in defense of the nation.

It also makes him reflect back over his life and even though those bullets were flying over his head and he was convinced he would never come home, that has now all changed.

The war experience, and the subsequent chance to get to know the Vietnam people, have changed him.

“It makes me appreciate what we have,” he said.