9-23-2024 12:26am

Honor Flight Southern New Mexico and El Paso Flight 18 A Success

Chris Edwards Editor

September 21st, 2024 at the Otero County Fairgrounds; a welcome home to our veterans occurred with a welcome home of 3 Vietnam era veterans returning to Alamogordo via Honor Flight #18. The crowd to welcome home these veterans was large, strong and enthusiastic.

This Welcome Home to Heros event was hosted by the Patriot Guard Riders and the US Veterans Motorcycle Club, Trinity Chapter and Honor Flight.

The Honor Flight Van was escorted by police, and the Patriot Guard Riders and the US Veterans Motorcycle Club, Trinity Chapter. They traveled Saturday night from the El Paso Airport and came up White Sands Boulevard and then to the fairgrounds for a hero's welcome and a meet and greet.

The travel plans for Honor Flight included the veterans departing from Las Cruces and Alamogordo, several veterans attended with 3 from Alamogordo. They flew out of El Paso on September 19th, 2024 to Washington DC. They went to many sites in the DC area including Arlington and the War memorials.

The local honorees for this event included:

Joseph Green who served in multiple branches US Marine Corp, US Navy Reserve and US Air Force Reserve and is a Vietnam War Era veteran.

Joseph Green served in the Marine Corp as an aviation Technitian and did some time as an MP during his career. He then transferred to the Navy Reserve where he was a photos mate, taking official photo's, documenting crashes, and got to take a few photos of movie stars as well. From there he went to the Air Force Reserve's, there he became a Civil Engineer, specifically an electrician, later they transfered him to Power Production, a generator maintainer. There he went all over the US and assisted with large scale projects that were upgrading the power grid on bases/in pecific facilities. He served 3 Years in the Marines, 12 in the Navy Reserves and 16 in the Air Force Reserves before he decided to retire on 1 Feb, 1995.

Floyd Stringer is a US Army Vietnam War Era veteran. Floyed is an Alamagordo native who served in the US Army as a Helocoptor Crew Chief and Gunner for the UH-1's. He was sot down twice in 5 days. The first time he walked away without a scratch, the second time he was not so lucky and spent 23 months in the Hospital recovering at the Old Army Hospital, William Bowmont, here at Fort Bliss. He has 2 sons, 5 grandsons and 2 grand daughters. He and his wife spend their retirment drag rasing, and it has become a family thing, as well.

Susan Stringer is a US Army Vietnam War Era veteran Army medical nurse. Susan joined the army as well and became a nurse. After her training in Alabama and Sam Houston, she was assigned to Fort Bloss, where she administered shots to new troops. From there she was transfered to the Army Hospital William Bowmont and worked on the Officers Ward. She met her Husband Floyd, through a mutual friend. But her and Floyd love to tell people that they met at the hospital as a little joke. After the Army she then began working on Holloman AFB as a Family Support center, assisting Airman and their families with Air Force Aid and Emergency aid services.

Honor Flight of Southern New Mexico (HFSNM) was established in 2008 by business and community leaders who were devoted to honoring our veterans. HFSNM also serves El Paso, Texas. Their focus and priority are on honoring our most senior heroes, WWII and Korean War veterans and Vietnam veterans.

Since 2005 the Honor Flight network has flown over 180,000 veterans from across the United States, accompanied by almost 126,000 guardians back to see the memorials dedicated to them.

To learn more visit https://www.honorflightnm.org/about