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Mail Call was such a treasured moment of wartime military service that Edward Steffens recalls how a Navy friend aboard ship couldn’t enjoy it. “He was from West Virginia,” said Steffens —
aboard an Alaska Airlines flight Friday to Washington, D.C., as part of the latest Honor Flight San Diego. Asked why he never got any letters, the Navy buddy told Steffens: “Nobody in my
family knows how to write.” If they did, he said, “I didn’t know how to read it,” the Vietnam veteran recalled of his illiterate friend — “one of the nicest guys you ever wanted, but [with]
no education whatsoever.” Cruising at 30,000 feet about two hours outside their Baltimore destination, the 90 military veterans had their own Mail Call. Some told what the long-ago treat
meant to them. Clifford Anderson, an Army veteran who served in Korea, said he especially recalls receiving a package from his “nurturing mother” that included dried apricots. “I’d never had
them before and I’ve enjoyed them ever since,” he said. “The taste was wonderful. And so, yeah, mail call was always important, and I felt sorry for those that never received any mail.” A
lifelong buddy wrote to Anderson faithfully. “His name was Herb. And he later became a missionary in Japan,” he said. “I wrote to him when he was over there and we went to the World Series
when we were kids in 1945.” (He says they stood in line all night to get into the bleachers. By game time, “we were so tired we could hardly keep our eyes open.”) Retired Lt. Col. Evelyn
Jean Wright, a former Air Force nurse, called Mail Call an “extreme morale factor.” Stationed at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taiwan about 100 miles south of Taipei, she recalls with dismay
how “we’d go over to the one post office and it would have a sign: ‘The truck broke down. No mail today.'” “Our whole morale just went down,” she said. “That was a connection with the
United States, the connection to our family. So it’s extremely important.” Unlike today’s Zoom calls and email, they were “letters we could hold in our hands and savor,” she said. Aboard
Friday’s early morning flight out of San Diego International, Wright received the most letters from family and friends. Overwhelmed, she held her hand to her mouth and cried. She said it
would take a year to write everyone back. Like some others — calling for tissues among tears — she said she would save the rest for later. Retired Marine Capt. Joseph Larkin said his wife
sent him tapes when he was in Vietnam, and “I could listen to my daughter and my wife talk to me.” And when he was very young in Korea, he said, his mother and dad were gone, but his sister
sent him packages and mail and kept in touch. “It was great for me, in a combat area, to get letters,” he said. One veteran Friday was surprised to receive many letters from students at
Purdue University, his alma mater. Even the president of the West Lafayette, Indiana, school wrote him. Honor Flight San Diego has been doing mail call since its 2010 launch — even spurring
some grateful former passengers to provide cards and letters for upcoming trips. Donna Hester, whose father was a WWII veteran, calls it an honor to spearhead the project. Veterans shed
tears of joy, she says, saying “Mail Call” is their two favorite words. “When you walk up and down the plane, they want to show you every letter,” Hester said before the trip. “They read
each letter over and over. When they get home, many of them like to write back. So I always ask people to put a return address. They become pen pals.” Many come from friends and relatives.
Not all veterans have social media, she said, so getting an actual letter is very special. To make sure she has enough, mail is solicited all year round. The pandemic helped in a way. “Many
volunteer groups didn’t have enough activities for their volunteers, so I reached out to them,” Hester said. “I feel I get the most out of it because I get to see all of these wonderful
letters. It just touches me to see the veterans reading these letters.” More than 5,000 letters were collected for Friday’s mail call, led by Soldiers’ Angels — with 1,763 letters and cards
from 16 states. Other sources include California chapters of Daughters of the American Revolution, Teen Volunteers in Action, National Charity League and local Girl and Boy Scout troops.
Local businesses and service groups helping with the project include AT&T employees, La Mesa Women’s Club, Vista Women’s Club, Mission Bay Women’s Club and VFW members. Elementary,
middle and high schools provide letters, along with ROTC units. One such school is Baypoint Preparatory Academy, a public charter school in San Marcos. South Africa native Lisl Budfuloski,
an academic coach at the K-8 Baypoint school, is the wife of a U.S. service member. Her father-in-law is a Vietnam veteran. She began having her own kids write the veterans three years ago
and recruited students and teachers when she joined the school nearly two years ago. (Her fifth-grade son, Michael, is raising money for Honor Flight as an 11th birthday project: “He’s got a
good heart.”) Budfuloski’s students, to her surprise, have embraced the campaign. As many as 70 letters were written for this weekend’s trip. “Middle schoolers are usually too cool” for
such things, she says, but her eighth-graders “are loving to do it.” They make their messages special, Budfuloski said, and think hard about what they want to write. “They ask questions,”
and take pride in their work. “It’s just an amazing experience. The whole school celebrates.” Using colored construction paper, some will add artwork or write a straight letter. “A
seventh-grader cut out a piece of paper to represent the American flag,” she said. “And then underneath, as you lift it up, is his letter. The things they come up with just blows my mind.”
She’s hoping more veterans write back after April’s batch “because we make sure to ask questions in each letter and to include our school address. … I think it’s something that these kids
will remember as they grow up.” To donate to Honor Flight San Diego, click here. SECOND IN A SERIES