Vietnam veterans and their wives pose for a photo in front of Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas on Oct. 10, 2023. (Chitose Suzuki, The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
DALLAS (Tribune News Service) — A group of almost a dozen Vietnam War veterans and their wives descended upon Dallas on Tuesday, celebrating getting to spend another trip exploring a city with comrades they made decades ago.
The men graduated together from the United States Military Academy in 1963 and soon after each served in the Vietnam War, some completing multiple tours.
Medals awarded among the group for their service in Vietnam include two Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars for Valor, 10 Bronze Stars for meritorious service in a combat zone, five Purple Hearts and 14 Air Medals.
The friends, most of whom are 80 or older, have gathered for an annual trip 48 of the past 49 years, taking a gap year during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They’ve never repeated a city, and some of their most recent trips include New Orleans and San Diego.
This year the group — traveling from as far as Hawaii, Pennsylvania and California and as close as Houston — is spending a week in Dallas with Dallasites Tony and Gale McKinnon as hosts alongside Corsicana residents Paul and Kay Hable.
Tony McKinnon’s city pride showed in his polo shirt, which included a design of recognizable red and blue Dallas symbols like Big Tex and the city skyline. Others wore West Point hats and shirts.
Tuesday was one of the visit’s more action-packed days, with a bus tour that included stops at downtown Dallas’ cattle drive sculptures in Pioneer Plaza, the State Fair of Texas and the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden’s annual autumnal display.
An added bonus of riding around the city on the bus was a real Dallas experience: sitting in traffic on Central Expressway and hearing tires screech as an accident was narrowly avoided nearby. They all thanked the heavens that they didn’t have to experience Texas’ triple-digit heat, though.
Errol McKoy, former longtime State Fair president and friend of the McKinnons, acted as a tour guide, enchanting the group with stories of his time leading the country’s longest-running state fair.
He told them about the 1,300-pound champion boar named Boris, the revamp of Big Tex after he was engulfed in flames in 2012 and how the Texas- Oklahoma football game has sold out every year for almost a century.
McKoy also fielded questions about just how many foods Texans can fry, including butter and beer.
Errol McKoy, former State Fair of Texas president, talks to a group Vietnam veterans and their wives during a tour of the fair. (Chitose Suzuki, The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
At one point during McKoy’s narration, one person joked: “Are we going to have a test after this?”
“The real test is whether our creaky joints can make it on and off this bus,” Tony McKinnon countered, with a laugh.
As soon as the group arrived in front of Big Tex, he let out a “Howdy, Folks! Welcome to the most Texan place on Earth, the State Fair of Texas.”
“We’ll isn’t that something?” one of the women said as Big Tex’s jaw and arm moved.
Like all the other fairgoers, the group couldn’t pass up taking a photo in front of Dallas’ best-known cowboy.
The hospitality continued as Christi Erpillo of Fernie’s greeted the group with funnel cakes, of course, and the award-winning Fried Cherry Pie in Sky.
People’s eyes grew larger as the sweets were set on their table, served with a side of vanilla Blue Bell ice cream, and they joked about having dessert to start the day.
“It’s an honor y’all are here,” Erpillo told the group. “Thank you for serving our country.”
After exploring the Creative Arts Building, glancing at this year’s butter sculpture and gawking at the amount of eccentric-food options, they made a pit stop McKoy insisted upon: Fletcher’s corny dogs.
“You can’t come to the fair and not get a corn dog,” McKoy said.
Together, they ate almost two dozen corny dogs and debated “mustard or ketchup?” as they walked back to the bus.
Most of the group had at least traveled through Dallas at some point but agreed that they’d never done anything like Tuesday’s outing.
John Dorland of Nashville, Tenn., said he’s thankful the friends have been able to get together time and time again.
He said the group can be a lot to manage at times, comparing it to “herding turkeys,” but said with a giggle that they’re at least used to following orders from their time in the military.
Throughout the day Tuesday, Dorland proudly repeated how amazed he was at the size and strength of the group despite most of them being octogenarians. He said he’s blessed by these friendships.
“This is about continuing the camaraderie that we developed and the accuracy of the motto of West Point: Duty, honor, country,” Dorland said.
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