VIDEO :: Return to Nam, “We owe it to These Vets to Give Them the Best Possible Trip”

Diane MacDonald has seen her fair share of emotional moments. She sits on the Board of Directors of Old Glory Honor Flight, the organization that has taken over 3,500 area veterans on over 40 flights to Washington D.C. memorials in their honor.

But returning to Vietnam with 53 Northeast Wisconsin veterans will be different. It's their first Honor Flight off American soil with less monuments and more battle sites where veterans may recall their friends' injuries or deaths. How does she plan to handle this new set of emotions?

“How I'm going to react, I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to keep it together I'll tell you that,” she says. She'll take that as it comes, but keep her focus on two things: providing the best possible trip with the best possible intended outcome. “We owe it to these vets to give them the best possible trip, and it's not lost on me what these men have gone through and what they dealt with for the last 50 years,” says MacDonald.

MacDonald has also been asked to deliver the ashes of a Fox Valley veteran back to Vietnam. In essence, a 54th veteran has been added to the trip and another intended outcome. “If that's the least I can do, I would do whatever I could to make sure that each and every one of those vets has the time that they are seeking, whether that's reflection, whether that's closure, or maybe a little fun,” says MacDonald.

Return to Nam departs Sunday from the Fox Valley on its two-week journey.

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