WASHINGTON, D.C. — Honor Flight of West Central Florida leaves no stone unturned to shower Tampa Bay area veterans with the love and appreciation they rightfully deserve.
Like the 52 flights that came before it, the latest honor flight on Tuesday went off without a hitch, and seventy-five veterans experienced a day they will never forget as they visited Washington, D.C. to see the monuments and memorials dedicated to their military service.
“This has to be one of the most memorable days of my life,” said Jim ‘Mac’ McCarthy, an Army veteran from Apollo Beach who served “outside the wire” as a member of the 4th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War.
Pulling off the flight’s biggest surprise required weeks of discreet prep-work and planning.
Long before the date of the flight, family members of the veterans, their friends, and complete strangers — some from other parts of the country — poured their heartfelt gratitude into handwritten letters that were delivered to the veterans as they flew back to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.
WATCH NOW: More than just memorials: Latest honor flight surprises Tampa Bay veterans with love and gratitude
May 28, 2025, 10 a.m.
Maureen Kasper and Karen Haggerty wrote their letters to Mike Haggerty, a Vietnam veteran on the flight, who lives near Palm Harbor.
Kasper is Mike Haggerty’s dear friend. Karen Haggerty is his wife.
“These letters are from the heart. That’s no question whatsoever about it,” Kasper said. “I’m grateful for all of the good things that he does — the love that he has for his wife is immense. Really is.”
Mike is a man with a big personality and a strong Philadelphia accent. And though both Kasper and Karen tease Mike for talking a lot, they say he’s fun company and a great companion.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” Karen said. “I couldn’t have a better husband.”
May 28, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Jennifer Escobar’s letter was a little harder to write.
A few weeks ago, she sat down at the dining room table in her Dover home to write hers to the veteran she chaperoned on the honor flight, Richard LaCagnina, a person she hoped to learn more about and strengthen her bond with.
“I’ve seen photos,” Escobar said. “He does have memorabilia, and I’ve seen his photos from Vietnam.”
LaCagnina is Escobar’s father, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who guards his emotions and even in how he shows love to his daughter.
“We kind of know that we love each other, and we don’t mention it,” Escobar said.
That’s why her letter was hard but important to write.
“He has no idea,” she said. “I’ve hidden it completely from him.”
June 10, 2025, 10:03 a.m.
When the day of the honor flight finally arrived, and the 75 veterans — one World War II, 7 Korean War, and 67 Vietnam War — landed in Washington, the letters weren’t the first surprise they received.
One of the first ones happened at the World War II Memorial, where a group of school children lined up to greet the 75 vets with applause.
“I look at those kids clapping. They were seventh, eighth and ninth grade,” Mike Haggerty said through tears.
The second surprise was the monuments themselves. Most of these veterans had never seen them before, including these two twin brothers from Sun City Center: Robert and David Cutshall.
“It just brings honor—honor to those people that gave it all,” said David, who’s a U.S. Navy veteran along with his twin.
June 10, 2025, 2:04 p.m.
Yet another surprise happened at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
There, Escobar and her dad, LaCagnina, took a pilgrimage to an important name.
Though, as LaCagnina admitted, he’s not the most sentimental guy in the world, beside the wall, he started to open up once he found the name he was looking for: Ralph LaCagnina.
Though Richard returned from Vietnam, his younger brother did not.
“I don’t have the, you know, ‘Why wasn’t it me or why couldn’t it have been me,’ kind of thing. Number one, because I know he wouldn’t want that, you know,” Richard said with emotion in his voice. “I guess you just accept it and you go on and do the best you can.”
“But at least we can say—or I can say—I had time with him, you know,” he continued.
LaCagnina shared stories about his military service and how his brother made the ultimate sacrifice.
It was all a surprise to Escobar because most of the family history she learned in this moment was previously unknown.
“For my father, it’s still a mystery for me to know exactly what he did in Vietnam," she said in a previous interview on May 28. “I’m going to see if, you know, he opens up, and I’ll ask him, you know, ‘What got my uncle’s name right here? Like, can you tell me what happened?’”
Before leaving the Vietnam wall on Tuesday, the two made several etchings of Ralph LaCagnina's name.
June 10, 2025, 7:12 p.m.
Hours later, after veterans boarded the flight back to Tampa Bay, the biggest surprise finally played out.
Packets of letters were hand-delivered to each and every veteran. Some were written by school kids, some by strangers, and others were written by loved ones, like Mike Haggerty’s longtime wife, Karen.
“Dearest Mike, I hope you know that being your wife is such a blessing and an honor,” she wrote in her letter. “You were my first love and my true love from the first day I met you.”
There was hardly a dry eye in the cabin.
A few aisles away, Richard LaCagnina sifted through a stack of letters of his own, including the one his daughter Jennifer Escobar secretly wrote.
“Dear Dad. I can’t believe we are able to go on this honor flight together,” she wrote in the letter. “To think some deserving veterans don’t get to go because fate steps in before their opportunity. Thank you for your service.”
Not one for hugs and kisses, the hardened Marine couldn’t help himself. Holding back tears, he leaned over to kiss his daughter.
No doubt, the latest honor flight was the journey of a lifetime. But it was a journey about so much more than memorials.
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Right now, Honor Flight of West Central Florida is looking for more corporate sponsors and guardians to make future flights possible. Learn more by visiting the nonprofit's website here.
