ORISKANY — Patrick McGowan never got the kind of welcome home he deserved after his tour during the Vietnam War, but Honor Flight Syracuse changed that.

McGowan is from Oriskany and spent three years with the Marine Corps.

“I was in Vietnam… and discharged in 1970,” he said. “Personally, nobody cared for us when we got home from Vietnam. It was a hated war, and nobody liked anybody in the military. It was the same thing with the Korean War; they never got a welcome home either.”

McGowan was among those chosen for Honor Flight’s 18th trip down to D.C. for a weekend trip that started April 22. Honor Flight’s mission is to honor America’s veterans by transporting them to Washington, D.C. to visit the national memorials. Joining McGowan on his trip was his wife Marilyn, his friend George Roberts and Roberts’s daughter Kerry Vanvechen.

McGowan saw the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., while in Maryland visiting his daughter in 2002. “When you see the wall, you feel terrible,” he said. “All those good men who sacrificed for this country. I looked up some names of people I knew who were on the wall.”

But recently, McGowan and a host of other veterans were given a chance to see all the memorials and the kind of welcome that had been a long time coming for some.

“I was honored. But I can see why they call it Honor Flight with everything they did,” McGowan said. “The Honor Flight showed this country’s respect for us [as veterans]. There were individuals, hundreds of them, cheering us on. It didn’t matter where we were — from the airport to when we came back.”

Seeing those memorials, McGowan said he felt the same thing as when he first visited the Vietnam Memorial. It meant a lot to McGowan, who said his father and uncle were among people who had enlisted during World War II.

“We went to the Navy Memorial, World War II, we went through the Lincoln Memorial and walked to the Vietnam, Korea, and Women’s Memorial,” McGowan said. And every step of the way, McGowan and veterans just like him were getting that welcome the country lacked all those years ago.

“To see the thousands of people that were waiting for us [to land] with the cannon salute, people standing out in the rain and cheering, it was so overwhelming,” McGowan said.

For more information about Honor Flight Syracuse, to submit an application for a veteran, to donate, or volunteer, visit honorflightsyracuse.org.