Veterans visit Love Field Airport mural

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Two Vietnam veterans from Wichita Falls took a trip with Tanner Deleon to Dallas Love Field Airport to visit The Mural of the World, a map that has covered the airport floor since the 50s.

Over 3,000 Texans died while fighting in the Vietnam war, and the ones that made it back didn’t receive a warm welcome. Most flew into Dallas Love Field when they returned and had something to look forward to inside the airport, but most never got the chance.

“One of the things we promised each other at that time is that if we made it back home to texas that would be a ritual to look at the world mural, go stand on the state that you are from and give thanks to the lord, then write back to them that you made it home,” Joel Jiminez, Commander of DAV Chapter 41, said.

Nearly 50 years after the Vietnam war ended, emotions are still raw when talking about it, but going to see this mural and honoring those who didn’t make it back was considered a deed that needed to be done.

“I know it is probably going to be a little hard but I owe it to the people that didn’t come back,” Danny Daugherty, a Vietnam veteran, said.

When soldiers began coming home from the Vietnam war they often flew through Dallas Love Field. If they had the chance they would come to look at the globe, find the city where they lived, and said thank you because they were able to make it home.

After two hours in the car, Jiminez and Daugherty’s eagerness was at an all-time high. When they first laid eyes on the mural together, they were speechless, overcome with emotion, and thankful.

“It is just a good feeling, it really is. I thought I was going to be really emotional, but it all sort of ended by being here,” Daugherty said

“To see today gives me a little bit of closure to thank the people of the United States of America that we shouldn’t forget the ones that gave the ultimate sacrifice,” Jiminez said.

Both men weren’t only thanking the mural for making it home--but thanking the heroes that gave their life in vietnam--giving them a chance to come home and see their families again... They both say those soldiers are the real heroes