Veterans get grand homecoming after final Hall County Hero Flight

GRAND ISLAND, NE — It was a hero’s welcome decades in the making.  

Hundreds of Nebraskans greeted 90 veterans Wednesday night in Grand Island as they returned from an all expenses paid trip to the nation’s capital.

It was a welcome many veterans like Roger Harrie never received.

“I’ve never had anything like that.  Ever.  I’m sure there’s 90 other veterans here that feel the same way I do,” Harrie said.

The tenth and final Hall County Hero Flight carried service men and women who fought in World War Two and Korea, but the group was mostly Vietnam veterans. 

“The veterans, when they came home from Vietnam, didn’t get much recognition," Grand Island resident Jim McGahan said.  "In fact, they got more negative publicity than they had positive publicity.”

Wednesday the positivity flowed from the former Northwest High School teacher and his five former colleagues, all of whom came to support Harrie, their former student.

“We’re here to thank them and let them know that the way they were treated when they came home from Vietnam is not the way we wanted to treat them,” McGahan said.

So today they’re treated like heroes, an idea the community has supported one hamburger feed at a time.

“We just say it’s a blessing from God because when we would get to the point where we didn’t know if we had money to fund a flight, donations would come in," Treasurer Linda Green said.  "Not big donations - $100, $50.”

The money funded 10 editions of the trip and the grand welcome.  A welcome with a larger-than-life flag, the Northwest band, and for veteran Bob Hays, his big family.

“Five kids and grandkids and that’s just part of them… but they’re here,” Hays said.

Adding to a moment that was suited for central Nebraska’s heroes.

“I’m just uplifted.  It’s the homecoming the veterans never received after the end of the Vietnam War," Hays said. It’s just so rewarding.”