GREENSBORO — Vietnam Veteran and Navy Commander Christina Illig Rudge from Holy Family Church in Clemmons held back tears as she was welcomed home by hundreds of supporters April 30 after her Triad Honor Flight arrived at Piedmont Triad International Airport.
“It’s surreal, whenever there is healing going on you know that God is there,” said Rudge. “To see all these people from my church that I knew, I thought this is what heaven must be like. It was like the Communion of Saints, everyone saying they love you and thank you.”
Honor Flight is a free program that flies veterans to the National War Monuments in Washington DC. Parishioners from across the diocese play key roles in the program. The April Triad Honor Flight had some very valuable cargo, including three WWII veterans, 12 Korean War veterans, and a group of Vietnam veterans. In all, 99 veterans participated, each escorted by a guardian to assist them.
The wait list is large - over 600 names and waits that can be more than four years - but the experience helps bring the long-sought healing veterans deserve.
The posters, balloons, handshakes, hugs and joyful tears Rudge received were a stark contrast to what she endured at a New Orleans’ Mardi Gras parade in the 70s.
She was a college ROTC teacher and remembers the experience vividly. “We got out there in the middle of the parade, the crowd started throwing tomatoes and eggs and excrement at us,” she said. “They were screaming out terrible things to us. Our white uniforms were destroyed.”
Rudge’s story is common and why volunteers like Rosalie Pratesi, a parishioner of Holy Family in Clemmons, and St. Pius X parishioner and Board of Directors member Bob Jackson spend hundreds of hours planning this event every six months.
Pratesi does it to honor her father who was a WWII veteran and her brother who was also an Air Force veteran. Jackson got involved after he took one of the first Triad Honor Flights.
“After that flight, there was never a doubt in my mind I wanted to be a part of this, especially having friends who were in Vietnam and seeing how they were treated when they got home,” Jackson said.
Companies such as American Airlines and TSA, performers like the Jamestown Pipes and Drums donate their time and resources as do companies like Walmart, churches like Holy Family, and organizations like the Knights of Columbus.
Pratesi also recognizes the tireless efforts of the Triad Honor Flight’s Executive Director Alison Huber.
“Her passion is extraordinary,” Pratesi said.
Rudge served for 21 years in the United States Navy as an unrestricted line officer and waited on the list for Triad Honor Flight for a little over two years. When she got the call, she hesitated, “I almost felt like there are other people that needed to go, and I didn’t want to take their seat.”
But, her husband, Hank, a Vietnam Vet who participated two years prior, insisted. “My husband said I need to have this experience, and he knows what I have been through,” Rudge said.
Fellow parishioner Melissa Witherspoon was honored to be her guardian, and together they reached the airport before dawn.
Rudge said, “I was completely surprised by the sheer number of people up that early to greet us and the entertainment.”
They walked under an archway of American Flags held by ROTC students. The plane’s captain greeted each veteran with a handshake. The crew decorated the plane with stars hanging from the ceiling and American Flags taped to the seats.
The first stop was the WWII Memorial, for Rudge, it was “mind-blowing.” Hundreds of children lined the entry.
“They all had ping-pong paddles that read ‘Thank You for your service’,” Rudge explained. “They were hollering out ‘Thank you’ and ‘God Bless America’.”
The girls surrounded Rudge and Witherspoon and showered them with questions, inspired by one of the few women vets.
“I said to them, you could do this, too,” she smiled. “It gave me hope. I thought, my goodness, there is a generation who get this, and it’s all worth it.”
They visited the Vietnam Wall, coincidentally, during the 50th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon commemoration.
“The Vietnamese were coming up and shaking our hands, thanking us for the freeing of Saigon,” said Rudge. “They handed their yellow and orange flags to us.”
The veterans spent time tracking the names of their fallen friends, carefully tracing them on pieces of paper they could bring home to forever remember.
“This one dear man was looking for the people that were dead beside him in Vietnam, he found five of them,” Rudge said.
They then visited the main gates of Arlington National Cemetery and watched while impeccably dressed officers presented wreaths and conducted flag ceremonies.
By the time Witherspoon and Rudge paraded down the concourse at the end of the night, they were tired but reinvigorated by the crowd and fellow parishioner Gerald Bryant, who was one of the six Knights of Columbus in uniform, with their swords drawn in honor.
Bryant, a Vietnam veteran on the waiting list for his Triad Honor Flight, said, “I needed to be a part of this. I couldn’t miss it. I mean, these guys did something phenomenal, and I just want to be a little piece of it. It’s so meaningful to me. That’s why I go every time.”
Rudge was overwhelmed in the best way, “I witnessed veterans healing right in front of my eyes. I was healing and was completely blown away by the reception at the airport.
This was absolutely a second Homecoming.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
