The 75-year-old Fairfield resident served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1971, and was in Vietnam a day shy of a year. His tour took him from the Cambodia border down to the Mekong Delta, which is southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, entering the Southeast Asia country in the late 1960s.
His memories of that time are always with him, but they were front of mind on the one-day Aug. 10 trip, when he was one of 100 veterans to visit Washington, D.C., by way of Honor Flight Dayton. He visited many of the memorials, including the ones dedicated to Vietnam and Korea, and Arlington National Cemetery, where he and others saw the changing of the guard and visited the World War II memorial.
While the Vietnam Wall memorial was a poignant time for Lewis, the Arlington leg of the tour stuck with him for two reasons. The first were the fields of graves. “It’s sad,” he said of the white tombstones of fallen soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors.
The second memory was his dad, Earl E. Lewis, a World War II veteran who died in September 2016.
Though it was a solemn time, his son, Tim Lewis, a sixth grade social studies teacher at Fairfield’s Creekside Middle School, arranged a surprise at the Marine Corps memorial at the cemetery. The younger Lewis applied to Honor Flight’s Honoring Yesterday’s Heroes program, where veterans who cannot travel or have died can be recognized.
Stephen Lewis was about 30 feet away when he saw an easel display that held a folded flag and a photo of his then-17-year-old dad, Earl E. Lewis, who left Fairfield High School early (with permission of his parents) to enlist in the Marines.
Tim Lewis said his dad “made a beeline” to the display. The elder Lewis said, “I’d about fell over.”
“It was hard to believe,” Stephen Lewis said of seeing his dad in front of the WWII memorial depicted by the iconic Iwo Jima statue. “It was a big surprise. My dad was a Marine all the time he lived. He was a great father.”
The elder Lewis said it was his dad and mom, Ruby, who died this past June 7 at 99 ― along with their prayers ― “that brought me back” from Vietnam.
Stephen Lewis volunteered to join the Army in 1967 because he knew he’d be drafted, and by mid-1968, the deadliest year of the Vietnam War, he was in the country. His job was to find land mines through radio frequency and report back to headquarters.
Though he survived, it took a toll on him mentally and physically. One of the U.S. strategies was to drop a chemical herbicide called Agent Orange to defoliate the jungles, which provided cover for the North Vietnamese. Stephen Lewis said Agent Orange rained down “just like a curtain.”
Many of his health issues are a result of that exposure, the family said. Tim Lewis said in his 48 years, his dad has never had a sense of smell.
When he came back to the United States in mid-1969, his boat landed in California. He encountered the same unwelcoming return faced by many others who served in Vietnam. By contrast, the reception Stephen Lewis and others received in D.C. and the return trip to Dayton “was better, much better,” Stephen Lewis said.
It was a party at the Dayton International Airport the evening of Aug. 10, with some 1,500 to 2,000 people cheering for all 100 veterans, complete with bands playing all the service branches’ songs.
Both Lewises were awestruck by the response. “It was great,” Stephen Lewis said of the return reception with people celebrating and thanking him for his service. “The people were unbelievable. Unbelievable.”
While his sendoff to the airport wasn’t as grandiose, Fairfield sent him off with style. Fairfield officials ascended on his cul-de-sac, and flashing lights lit up the neighborhood. Everyone shook his hand, and police Chief Steve Maynard penned a letter thanking him for his service.
“He thought there was an accident,” Tim Lewis said of his dad, who, as owner of Amp Electric, was frequently contracted by Fairfield. “He didn’t realize everybody was there because of him.”
Honor Flight began in May 2005, though it wasn’t called that at the time. It started in Springfield with six four-seater planes transporting 12 World War II veterans from Dayton to Washington, D.C. The program flew 137 veterans to D.C. that first year.
A similar mission, called HonorAir, in North Carolina was inspired by this inaugural flight. Not long after it formed, the two merged, creating the Honor Flight Network, and now there are hubs across the country.
The Dayton program, which serves the area surrounding the Dayton region, has taken 7,131 World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans on 141 flights over nearly two decades to visit the memorials honoring the men and women who fought and died for the country..
Honor Flight Dayton director and president Al Bailey, a Vietnam combat veteran, said what’s most important now is getting World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans from Dayton to D.C.
“We want to make sure we’re giving them the opportunity to see their memorials,” said Bailey. “It’s just so important (to the veterans). When we come back from these trips, many of them say this was the most important day of their life.”
Though Stephen Lewis didn’t say where it stood among important days in his life, it’s one he won’t forget.
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