MT. PLEASANT—When Robert “Lynn” Olson came home from Army service with serious injuries in the early 1960s, there was no crowd waiting for him, no hallway lined with cheering people and no stack of letters thanking him for his sacrifices in service to the country.

That changed last week, when Olson, a Mt. Pleasant veteran, joined the Utah Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., with his son Bob Olson serving as his companion (called a “guardian”).

The two-day trip took veterans to major military memorials and historic sites, but for Olson and his family, it also became something more personal: a belated homecoming.

Olson entered the Army in May 1959 and trained at Fort Ord, Fort Hood, and Fort Leonard Wood as a mechanic. After about nine months on Guam, he was sent on temporary duty to Korea in 1960 to help build sites for Honest John missiles.

The most serious moment of his service came there.

Olson said crews were drilling and blasting into cliff faces as they prepared a site, and he had been assigned to keep an air compressor running during the work.

“They said, ‘This is your job. You just keep that thing running,’” Olson said.

Then, on Oct. 20, 1960, a large rock came off the cliff, crushing his left leg instantly.

“They told me they wanted to amputate the leg,” Olson said.

The leg was ultimately saved, but the damage was significant, and the injury ended his active service permanently. Olson said he spent about 18 months recovering and was later treated stateside at Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver.

His Honor Flight opportunity came decades later after a friend from a Nauvoo mission put his name in for the program. Olson said he found out about two weeks before departure. The flight left Provo at 7 a.m. April 7 with 50 veterans and 50 guardians, and the itinerary included stops at the U.S. Army Museum, the Pentagon Memorial, the Marine Corps War Memorial, the U.S. Capitol, the Navy Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery before returning to Provo late April 8.

Bob Olson said the dedicated plane remained with the group for the whole trip.

“We flew out there straight from Provo straight to D.C.,” he said. “That airplane parked until we got back on it.”

When the group landed, the welcome began almost immediately. Olson and his family said there were people waiting at the airport and again at several stops along the way. Veterans were divided between red and blue buses, with Olson assigned to the blue bus. Because he uses oxygen and could not do that much walking, he traveled much of the trip in a wheelchair while his son pushed him through the larger sites.

The first day’s highlight for Lynn Olson was the Army museum.

“That was fantastic,” he said. “That’s a great big building and it has rooms for every branch of the service in there.”

The family said the trip’s medical support was also a key part of making it possible. Olson said a medic on the bus checked on him regularly and helped when he needed oxygen.

“She had an extra oxygen tank that saved me,” he said.

Asked how they were treated throughout the trip, Olson answered in one sentence.

“It couldn’t have been better,” he said.

“Respect,” Bob Olson added. “So much respect.”

Kris Jorgensen, a Sanpete resident and board member with Utah Honor Flight, said that kind of experience is exactly what the program is built to provide. Jorgensen first became involved after going on a 2016 flight as guardian for his father, a Korean War veteran. He said he “fell in love with the program” after that first trip and has since served on 13 flights, including 10 as a guardian and three as a flight lead.

He said Utah Honor Flight is “a 100% volunteer program,” with no one on the team or board taking “a salary or any form of compensation,” and said every part of the experience is designed around the veterans.

“The entire flight is geared towards showing the Veterans how much they are appreciated and loved,” Jorgensen told the Messenger. “It is ALL about them and their service.”

A major highlight for the father and son at Arlington National Cemetery.

“The biggest thing, I think, was the cemetery,” Lynn Olson said.

His son agreed, adding that Arlington was the emotional high point of their trip.

“That was the pinnacle,” he said.

The pair described the ride through the cemetery as quiet and reverent. They watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and came away most struck by the scale of the place and the silence around it. Bob Olson said the atmosphere was so still that visitors could hear the guards’ footsteps.

The trip moved quickly, with little downtime between stops.

“Everything was just a whirlwind,” Olson said.

One of the moments that stayed with the family most was the mail call, which happened on the flight from Provo. The veterans did not know ahead of time that packets of letters had been gathered for them from family, friends, schoolchildren, public officials, and others.

“He didn’t know,” Pat told the Messenger “None of them did. That was a good surprise.”

Pat Olson said the family was still working through the letters days later.

“We spent till 10.30 Saturday night reading through all those,” she said.

Jorgensen said that sort of detail is part of a larger effort that starts long before takeoff and continues after the flight returns. He said the sendoff, mail call on the plane, memorial visits, banquet, singing on the flight home and final homecoming are all built to show veterans what they mean to the people around them. He said Utah Honor Flight has now flown “just over 3500 Veterans” to Washington, including about 100 from central Utah, and he urged more eligible veterans to apply for future flights.

For Bob Olson, the deeper purpose of the program came into focus on the way home.

“Really the whole honor flight thing is to give a homecoming for these veterans that never got one,” he said.

The veterans were not told what would be waiting for them back in Provo. Olson said that after landing, the group was gathered and then led into a hallway lined on both sides with people.

“When they finally got everybody together there, they took us out and there was line on both sides,” he said. “I would imagine over a hundred people.”

Family members said about 30 of those were there specifically for Olson. Bob Olson said others from the broader community also waited late into the night for the group to return.

“A lot from our community was there,” he said. “Everybody just hung out and waited and basically was a big party.”

Asked what it felt like to come home to that reception, Lynn Olson did not try to dress it up.

“Oh, you can’t explain it,” he said, holding back tears.

For Jorgensen, that response is the point of the whole effort.

“Watching the healing that occurs for these Veterans as they are recognized and thanked for their service, dedication, and sacrifice is one of the most amazing and heartwarming experiences you’ll ever witness,” he said.

The Olsons said they hope Lynn’s trip encourages other veterans in Sanpete County to look into the program.

Jorgensen echoed that point, saying veterans who served up through Desert Storm are now eligible and should apply early if they want to get on a future flight.

More information can be found at utahhonorflight.org.