Honor. Thank. Inspire. An Honor Flight Chicago Podcast

Episode 62: Cold War Spy John Lee

John Lee's Air Force basic training testing in 1955 revealed a hidden skill: an aptitude for foreign languages. His first assignment was a yearlong intensive study of Russian at Syracuse University. He then took those skills -- and a top-secret clearance -- to the border with East Germany where he and others listened in on Soviet pilots flying overhead.

Episode 61: Duane Buttell and the MiG-21 Victory

On July 14, 1966, Duane Buttell, Jr., was the "Guy in Back" of an F-4 fighter escorting F-105s to a target over North Vietnam. Suddenly, several enemy MiG-21s appeared. Buttell and his co-pilot, William Swendner, shot down the MiG in one of the first victories over that aircraft during the Vietnam War. The aerial battle made such an impact that Hanoi Hannah mentioned Duane by name on a subsequent broadcast.

Episode 60: Vietnam Veteran Jim Davidson, A Survivor

Army Sergeant Jim Davidson arrived in Vietnam in March of 1968 with the intensity of the Tet Offensive still at a fever pitch. Jim stepped into the 101st Airborne as a replacement troop and soon found out why that unit's casualty rate was so high. Jim was wounded three times, the last time by a booby-trapped grenade that left him hospitalized for weeks. Instead of going home, however, Jim was sent back to the fighting for a fourth time. Every day for 54 years since coming home, Jim was wondered why he survived when so many of his friends did not.

Episode 59: Tomb Guard Joe Varanauski and the Standard of Perfection

From late 1956 through the summer of 1957, Army veteran Joseph Varanauski held the esteemed position of Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Listen in as Joe details his journey to one of the most prestigious posts in the U.S. Armed Services and reveals what it means to live by the creed "my standard will remain perfection."

Episode 58: Every Hero Has a Story

Honor Flight Chicago has now flown over 10,600 senior war veterans to Washington, D.C., to celebrate their service and give them the proper Welcome Home they never received. That number is big -- possibly impenetrable -- but each one of those heroes has a story. Join Paul Meincke on September's HFC111 as he learns the stories of eight different heroes and the impact their HFC experience has had on them.

Episode 57: David Mann, Vietnam War Gold Star Son

David Mann's father was in Vietnam for only a short time when he was killed in a rocket attack months before his namesake son would be born stateside. The younger Mann has spent his life getting to know his dad, recently becoming involved with a group of Gold Star children called Sons and Daughters in Touch. David flew with us on HFC111 to honor his father's legacy and brethren, and share his own experience in this powerful episode.

Episode 56: Norm Bowens, Mike Masello and the Brotherhood of Vietnam Veterans

Norm Bowens and Mike Masello served in Vietnam at different times and at different places. Still, they each brought something home so common to veterans who served in combat: PTSD. Many years later, a chance encounter around a specific chair at a group meeting led the two to become fast friends and brothers. Both flew together on Honor Flight Chicago's 109th mission to Washington, D.C., in July of 2023. Here they share their individual stories of service and their shared journey on the long road of healing.

Episode 55: Vietnam Veteran Jim Parker’s Unique MOS as the ”Bug Man”

Jim Parker grew up an Air Force brat. When the time came for him to join the service during the Vietnam War, he chose the same branch as his father. Despite being raised to know all things Air Force, his assigned role in the war was not one he had ever heard of. While his comrades in arms fought VC and NVA, Jim's adversaries were much smaller and more pervasive: mosquitoes.

Episode 54: Vietnam Veteran Dante Plata and the Power of Music

Dante Plata grew up in the church and fell in love with music and the guitar at an early age. Later, after entering the Army, he spent two years as a corpsman in a hospital in Japan treating the wounded of the Vietnam War. Seeing the results of the horrors of war up close led Dante to turn to his music for healing -- both for himself and for the benefit of those he cared for.

Episode 53: WWII Aviator Howard Cain and the Aftermath of Little Boy

The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Howard Cain was so eager to serve in WWII that he forged his parents' signatures to enlist at 17 toward the end of the war. Later, as a flight engineer on a B-29 Superfortress following Japan's surrender, Cain was aboard a reconnaissance flight over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What he saw has stuck with him to this day.