Alamogordo NM
9-27-2026 1:18pm

Alamogordo Gives Vietnam Veteran Larry Sanmann a Hero's Welcome Home From Honor Flight

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — More than half a century after he came home from Vietnam, Larry Sanmann finally got the homecoming he deserved.

A police escort led the Air Force veteran to VFW Post 7686 on Saturday evening, where Mayor Sharon McDonald, District 51 state representative candidate Grace Nagamine, fellow veterans, family members and residents waited to welcome him home from Washington, D.C., with Rio Grande Honor Flight Mission 22. Flags and banners greeted Sanmann as he arrived at the post on Highway 70 West

The celebration was organized by the U.S. Veterans Motorcycle Club, Trinity Chapter, alongside the Patriot Guard Riders and Rio Grande Honor Flight. Organizers had asked the community to turn out in force and give Sanmann the kind of reception that many Vietnam veterans were denied when they returned from the war.

Mayor McDonald stated: "Larry Sanmann spent his life keeping America's aircraft in the air, and tonight Alamogordo got the chance to say thank you. Too many veterans came home to silence. We wanted Larry to come home to a welcome deserved."

Grace Nagamine a candidate for District 51 State Representative was on hand and said: "Seeing this community fill the VFW for Larry says everything about who we are here in southern New Mexico. We owe our veterans more than one night of cheers, but tonight was a good start, I was honored to be here to celebrate Larry and the veterans on hand tonight.”

Honor Flight programs fly veterans to the nation's capital at no cost to visit the memorials built in their honor. For Sanmann, the trip capped a career spent keeping American aircraft in the sky.

A native of McCool Junction, Nebraska, Sanmann joined the Air Force in 1967 and trained as a jet engine mechanic. After a brief first assignment at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, he was sent to Phan Rang Air Base in South Vietnam, where from 1968 to 1969 he maintained engines on the F-100 Super Sabre fighter-bombers flying close air support.

His career then carried him across the country and the Pacific. At Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, the service's main engine overhaul depot, he worked on nearly every jet engine in the Air Force inventory. At McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas he maintained KC-135 Stratotanker engines, and in 1972 he deployed to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam for Operation Bullet Shot, keeping B-52 bombers running during the Vietnam War buildup. Assignments followed at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, and Hill Air Force Base in Utah, where he worked on the F-4 Phantom II and F-16 Fighting Falcon.

He finished his military career at Holloman Air Force Base working on the F-15 Eagle, retiring as a master sergeant after 21 years of active duty. He didn't stay retired long. Sanmann went to work for DynCorp maintaining T-38 Talon engines, then worked on the German Air Force's F-4 Phantoms at Holloman until 2004. He later drove the shuttle between Alamogordo and Holloman before retiring for good.

Sanmann makes his home in Alamogordo, and on Saturday night, his hometown made sure he knew it he is a valued member of our community. 

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