Navy veteran Joseph “Jay” Ventress now looks back on his Vietnam War service — including two tours on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation as a baker and cook — differently than he has in the past.

His change of perspective came from his recent participation as one of 70 honored veterans on the 30th Central Valley Honor Flight, a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., to visit war memorials and military sites with other veterans.

Many veterans come home from wartime with survivor’s guilt. Ventress talked about how bad he felt that some soldiers didn’t make it home from Vietnam while his own wartime duties consisted of “flipping doughnuts,” in his words. But with this trip, Ventress gained a broader appreciation of everyone’s part in the military mission.

“They told us we all signed a piece of paper that said that we were willing to go and do whatever they asked us to do. We’re sending you over here and we’re sending you over there. You flip doughnuts, and you run for your life. They could have swapped us around, and I could have been over there, and he could have been in the doughnut shop. But we both signed a piece of paper that said we were willing to do whatever they asked us to do, and that’s what it was.”

Ventress and his wife, Joy, learned about Central Valley Honor Flight four years ago. Joy looked into the application process and got Ventress on the waiting list. He found out in August that he had been approved for the October trip.

Each veteran on an Honor Flight trip is paired with a guardian. Ventress and his guardian, Dr. Scott Moore, were paired because they share a connection to Fresno State.

Moore is the dean of the Division of Continuing and Global Education, which operates the Fresno State Veterans Education Program, helping prepare veterans to become Fresno State students. Ventress attended Fresno State in the 1970s, competing as a bull rider with the Fresno rodeo team. He also met Joy, his wife of 46 years and the mother of their two sons and two daughters, while he was a Fresno State student.

When the group landed at the Baltimore airport on Oct. 14, the veterans were treated with respect and appreciation. Moore described the scene after they landed:

“There were three busloads of us, (70 veterans, 70 guardians and about 20 or 30 support staff), so getting everybody, including many people in wheelchairs, moving is a logistical feat. But as we walked through the airport and the terminal, people who saw us stood up and applauded. And you could see the healing start to happen as early as that.”

Vietnam Veterans Faced a Different Reception

It was different from what many Vietnam veterans experienced when they returned to the United States after completing their tours of duty.

“A lot of these Vietnam veterans came home to an unwelcoming community and unwelcoming family in some cases,” Moore said. “So, in many instances, these veterans haven’t shared that story (of their time in Vietnam) with anybody. And so to have the veterans around each other, supporting each other and sometimes not saying things and other times saying very deeply personal, difficult things, things they saw, things they experienced, there was a sense of healing through the whole trip.”

When Moore learned he had been paired with Ventress, he got an email saying, “You’re really going to like Joseph. He’s a Fresno State alum, and I hope you can keep up with him.”

Ventress and Moore attended a luncheon a week before the Honor Flight trip, and then Moore had an orientation for guardians. Ventress said, “I told him to find out what happens if the vet goes rogue.”

Visiting the Lincoln Memorial

And guardian and veteran did just that one night while on the trip. After dinner, they had some unscheduled time, so they took an Uber to see the Lincoln Memorial at night, something Ventress had wanted to do that wasn’t on the official trip itinerary.

“Joseph really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial,” Moore said. “If you look at the itinerary for the trip, they’re all war memorials or in some way associated with the military. The Lincoln Memorial didn’t make the cut, and it was something Joseph had said would mean a lot to him.”

But it wasn’t that special moment or the visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that had the most significant impact on Ventress.

“I’m not saying this in a braggadocious way, but I’ve done a lot of things in my life that were dangerous, that I got away with, and I’m still here. So nothing much excites me,” Ventress said. However, a couple of memorable moments during the third day of the Honor Flight impacted him deeply, even as he described them a week after returning home.

“We went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We watched the changing of the guard, and they put two wreaths up in a ceremony,” Ventress said. “When we walked out, there had to be more than 200 kids lining the walkway, as far as you could see, all wanting to high-five and fist-bump us, saying, ‘Thank you for your service.’ These were high school and junior high school kids, and it was emotional. Right now, I can still feel the emotion from that experience.”

Another memorable moment came when the Honor Flight group stopped at Fort McHenry National Monument, where Francis Scott Key was inspired during the War of 1812 to write the poem that later became “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Gathered Around the Flag

Ventress described how the veterans gathered around an enormous flag in the fort courtyard.

“You’ve seen on football games where they have a big flag out there, and everybody’s got a hold of it. That’s what we did. And then they had us sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ It was hard to get through that song, even right now. It was hard to get through that song without becoming emotional. Because if you read the words and think about what was happening and the significance of the time and what they were fighting for.”

Ventress prayed with other Christian veterans at the different memorials, including praying for the United States while at the ramparts at Fort McHenry.

Since it was founded in October 2013, Central Valley Honor Flight (an affiliate of the national Honor Flight Network) has raised more than $6 million to fund 30 flights, transporting more than 2,010 veterans of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War to the nation’s capital.

Bull riding and rodeo life wasn’t something Ventress discovered after his military time. It’s a thread that’s run through his whole life, from the first time his mom took him to the Sheriff’s Championship Rodeo in the Los Angeles Coliseum when he was 6 years old. Later, as a teenager, he worked at a stable and moved up to bull riding. Before his Vietnam tours, Ventress continued to compete in all-service rodeos around the state.

After he left the Navy, Ventress used his G.I. Bill benefits to attend classes at Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles. He had planned to finish his education at Cal Poly Pomona, but another rodeo colleague told him that Fresno State’s rodeo team needed a bull rider, so he changed course. And if he hadn’t, he likely wouldn’t have found Joy and become a family man.

A Big Welcome

Coming home from their whirlwind cross-country trip, Ventress and Moore were met by several hundred excited family, friends and community members at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, including Joy, their children, and grandchildren.

“That was way more than any of us expected,” Ventress said. “I have seen it many times on TV, but this was off the chart. It was all very emotional.”

Ultimately, the hard-to-impress Ventress confirms the transformational nature of the Honor Flight experience.

“It’s life-changing. People said that to me, and I said, ‘Pft. What’s life-changing about it?’ After experiencing it, I’m telling you that it’s different. And it’s something that a lot of vets need to check out.”