IN THE AIR — Hands shot up with faces lit up with giant smiles on Southwest Flight 0915 from Baltimore to Denver.
29 local veterans from southern Colorado received an emotional surprise: a final mail call. These veterans are a part of the "Honor Flight of Southern Colorado" where they spent the weekend visiting memorials in the nation's capital.
Veterans from the Korean and Vietnam war spent time reflecting on their service, and of those who didn't make it home.
The final mail call was filled with smiles, tears, and gratitude. Some veterans didn't receive mail during their service in the war. For others, it brought them joy, as they remembered mail calls as their big morale boost during combat.
“It’s amazing. For somebody to thank you for something that nobody ever thanked you for. It’s different,” Steve Ratkiewicz an Army veteran who served in Vietnam said as he admired a drawing from an elementary student.
Frank Klein's face grew with excitement as his name was called for the final mail call coming home to Denver.
"It was my choice, I loved all 30 years of it," Klein said as he reflected on his service, "I saw the world, met a lot of people, I'm still around a lot of memories."
When asked about how it felt to receive his mail packet, Klein replied in excitement "Air mail too!" with a laugh.
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Arden Rivers, a Marine veteran cheerfully opened through all of his mail. He was especially proud to see letters from his son, and his grandchildren.
Walter Boswell's mail call brought him to tears.
"Pretty neat," Boswell said, "I didn't do for that reason [to be thanked] I did 'cause I love this country."
ADDITIONAL HONOR FLIGHT COVERAGE
The welcome home they never got: veterans return from Honor Flight
Emotional: local veterans honor, memorialize fellow service members
From boot camp to honor flight: a friendship spanning decades and milestones
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