Sloggett participates in Honor Flight

“It was the experience of a lifetime!”
That was the reaction of Custer Vietnam veteran Chuck Sloggett, who flew to Washington, D.C. earlier this month with the latest veterans Honor Flight. The journeys, which take military veterans to the nation’s capital to visit various war memorials free of charge, are provided by the non-profit volunteer organization, Midwest Honor Flight.
Sloggett, a 20 year U.S. Navy pilot who served a tour in Vietnam, said he first learned about the flights four years ago when a friend was a participant.
Then about three years ago, after seeing a news article about another local veteran who had made the trip, Sloggett decided to put in an application.
COVID-19 put a hold on the flights for more than a year and Sloggett’s flight was one of the first after they resumed. He traveled with about 120 other Vietnam vets from South Dakota, Northwest Iowa and Southwest Minnesota, as well as a number of volunteer guides and support staff.
According to the website, Midwest Honor Flights is “dedicated to providing veterans with respect, honor and closure with an all-expense-paid trip to our nation’s capital.” That is just what Sloggett says he experienced on the trip.
He said highlights of the trip for him included the camaraderie of the veterans, seeing the sights of D.C. and the reaction of members of the public all along the way.  
“Everywhere we went people clapped for us,” said Sloggett, adding that was the total opposite of the reaction Vietnam veterans got in the late 1960s.
As a navy pilot flying a P2V Neptune patrol aircraft, Sloggett arrived in Vietnam in August of 1964, the day after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which is seen as the flash point for America’s full-scale entry to the conflict.
In the incident, the US destroyer, Maddox, was fired upon by North Vietnamese torpedo boats which led President Lyndon Johnson to seek the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which allowed him to greatly escalate U.S. involvement in the war.
Deployed at the time to the island of Okinawa, Sloggett and his crew had been sent to the Philippines to wait out a typhoon. The next day, however, they were told to start flying without being told the destination.
“About two hours later they told us we were going to Vietnam,” said Sloggett. “Everybody said ‛Where’s that?’”
Sloggett ended up spending about three months in Vietnam and every other day made a 12-hour flight into the Gulf of Tonkin to check on objects seen on the radar by the USS Kittyhawk, their command ship.
“Our job was to identify what it was,” said Sloggett.
As the Vietnam war dragged on, Sloggett and his comrades began to experience the negative public reaction to the conflict.
He recalls flying into various stations and being on liberty he was often advised not to wear his uniform in town.
“You wore your uniform in town you were gonna get razzed, that’s all there was to it,” said Sloggett, noting that animosity was particularly evident in places like San Francisco.
On this trip the public’s reaction was just the opposite.
Sloggett gets emotional as he recalls the group’s return trip to Sioux Falls where the flight originated. Bagpipes were playing at the airport and a motorcycle escort accompanied the bus to the hotel and convention center which had been the rendezvous point. Hundreds of people waited there to cheer for the veterans as a brass band played.
While in D.C., the veterans visited the Marine Corps Memorial with its iconic statue of the marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima, the Air Force Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, which Sloggett said awed him by its sheer size. They also visited Arlington National Cemetery where they witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Sloggett said he was most interested in seeing the U.S. Navy Memorial which features an oversized statue of the Lone Sailor. While living in Hastings, Neb. and doing volunteer work with veterans, a Navy widow had given him a miniature bronze replica of the statue that had been her husband’s and he said he wanted to stand next to the original.
“I’m short anyway,” smiled Sloggett, “but that statue really makes me look short.”
Also while in Washington, Sloggett was one of several veterans to be interviewed by KELO TV. A link to that report can be found at the Custer County Chronicle website.
Commenting on the efficient organization of the tour, Sloggett said there was a volunteer guardian for about every three veterans. They helped keep track of the participants, making sure they got back to the busses on time and taking care of the needs of the dozen or so veterans in wheelchairs.
There was just one other vet in Sloggett’s group, Bill Lampman from Pickstown. Sloggett said the pair got to become good friends during their tour. Their guardian was Alison Albrecht of  Rapid City.
Sloggett said there are five or six Honor Flights scheduled for next year and about 650 on a waiting list. He said his reason for sharing his story is to encourage other veterans to take advantage of the opportunity.  
“I’d like to see every guy who wants to do it go,” he said. “They’re missing out if they don’t.”
For more information and to apply for an upcoming flight, veterans can visit MidwestHonorFlight.org.