The Lyons/Davis family all took part in the May 28 Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. From left are Monica (Davis) Lyons, her father Lowell Davis, Ken Lyons, and his son Kristofer Lyons.
Ken and Kristofer Lyons found the memorial bench at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial for Craig Amundson. Amundson was from Anamosa and died on 9/11 when working at the Pentagon.
Monica Lyons and Lowell Davis pose in front of the Space Shuttle Columbia memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. (Photos submitted)
It was quite an honor and a memorable experience, to say the least, when Kristofer and Monica Lyons of Monticello got the chance to accompany their fathers, both veterans, on the May 28 Eastern Iowa Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.
Kristofer served as guardian for his father, Ken Lyons of Monticello, an Army veteran who served from 1966-69. Monica was her father’s guardian, Lowell Davis of Keokuk, a career veteran of the Marines and Army who served from 1972-92.
Both Kristofer and Monica signed their fathers up for the Honor Flight.
“We started the applications process two years ago,” recalled Kristofer.
It was back in January when Ken and Lowell found out about the trip.
“She (Monica) tried to get us on the same Honor Flight, which she managed to do,” Lowell said.
The last time Lowell was in D.C. also happened to be with an Honor Flight with his father, a WWII veteran. (Editor’s note: Quite the coincidence as my interview with Lowell Davis took place on June 6, the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.)
“The last time I was there, I did not get to see the Vietnam Memorial,” he said.
With so many WWII and Korean War vets on that Honor Flight, Lowell said it was important to make sure they got to see those memorials dedicated in their honor.
Lowell was able to find the names of his cousin and another young man who served in the Marines alongside his brother on the Vietnam wall.
Being on the Honor Flight with his daughter and in-laws, Lowell said it was an honor.
“It makes my eyes water. I went with my father to honor him and Monica wanted to honor me.”
Ken was honest when he said he wasn’t sure if he’d want to take part in the Honor Flight, but the experience blew him away.
In the early 1990s, the Lyons family made a trip to D.C.
“But I don’t really remember it that well,” Ken said. “But it was a quick visit.”
This time, however, he took his time at the memorials and sights, especially the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“My unit had five guys all die in one day in Vietnam,” he recalled.
Ken was able to find their names on a panel of the Vietnam wall.
A new stop for the Honor Flight is the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. This was especially meaningful for Ken and Kristofer. SPC Craig S. Amundson, of Anamosa, was working in the Pentagon on 9/11.
The welcome at the airport in D.C. and again late that night back in Cedar Rapids was especially meaningful for Ken.
“It was overwhelming,” he said. “It definitely was nothing like when we came home from Vietnam. My sister drove to Dubuque to pick me up at the airport and we just went home.”
Ken firmly believes returning veterans like himself, especially during the Vietnam War, should have gone through a debriefing due to the shock of returning the States under such tension.
“Two days before I left (for the States), I was in the field,” he said of the night and day difference. “We never had a chance to decompress.”
For Lowell, D.C. was “quite impressive.
“People went out of their way to come up to use and thank us for our service and shake our hands,” he continued.
He said at the Air Force Memorial, a group of middle school students formed a line and shook the veterans’ hands one-by-one.
At the D.C. airport, Lowell said there were several hundred people clapping as the veterans walked out of the terminal.
“It was loud!” he said, “several hands all clapping at the same time.”
It was even more surreal back in Cedar Rapids.
“You truly felt those people weren’t there to catch a flight, but strictly for the Honor Flight,” he said. “People waved flags and lined up down the corridor; everybody, people of all ages.”
Lowell said arriving back in Iowa, it was a real welcome home ceremony.
“We didn’t have that,” he said of the Vietnam era.
Lowell recalled when he was in the Marine Corps he was on a plane and even the stewardess didn’t hide her anti-war feelings toward him.
“She made that flight as bad as she could for me.”
On the plane back home, each veteran was given a packet of “Letters from Home.” Lowell said students in his grandkids’ school classes wrote him letters of thanks.
“One girl wrote, ‘I don’t know you, but you’re Amelia Mae’s grandpa.’”
Lowell enlisted in the Marines at the age of 23 in 1972.
“Two weeks before graduation (in the Marines), I got orders to go to Vietnam,” he said.
After four years, he joined the Army and served until he was 43, retiring in 1992 as an SFC (Sergeant First Class).
While in service, he was military police officer.
“I stayed in (the service) to help my fellow soldiers, to train them, and to take care of them as they should be,” he said of his career. “I gained a lot of respect. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for me; nothing I wouldn’t do for them.”
Ken served his four years in the Army, having been stationed in Germany and Vietnam. He signed up for heavy equipment infantry duty.
“I worked on a farm and I knew I would get drafted, so I just enlisted to get it over with,” he said.
Ken’s three older brothers were also in the Army.
Following his years in the service, ken worked for Cargill for 40 years.
Ken said he is proud to be a veteran, and takes great pride in his years of service.
“I don’t quite know how to put it into words,” he said of what being a veteran means to him. “I would do it again. It was a great learning experience for me.”
“It means a lot,” Lowell said of his service.
While attending his granddaughter’s, Mary Grace, track meet, a Navy veteran came up to Lowell and handed him a special coin expressing his thanks to veterans. Ever since then, Lowell makes it a point of carrying those same coins in his pocket to hand to a fellow veteran.