Nathan Phelps

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

WASHINGTON - John Kuhn clipped a microphone to his collar and prepared to interview Vietnam veteran Arnold Putnam, Jr. under the imposing sculpture of the Iwo Jima flag raisers at the Marine Corps War Memorial.

Kuhn, the former Green Bay Packers fullback, traveled with 98 Vietnam and Korean war veterans on a Never Forgotten Honor Flight to Washington D.C. earlier this month. He is partnering with the USA TODAY NETWORK–Wisconsin to showcase military mail home from the Civil War through current operations.

Twenty two letters will be published weekly in full-page advertisements later this year.

Kuhn interviewed six veterans on a recent Never Forgotten Honor Flight for a half-hour documentary on the journey. The film is expected to be streamed through USA TODAY NETWORK–Wisconsin websites and plans are being explored to premier the piece in a theater for Veterans Day on Nov. 11.

“To sit and have the conversations with the (veterans) I’ve had, it’s really been impressive to hear some their stories, see the smiles on their faces and see what this truly means to them,” Kuhn said during the May 16 trip.

“I’ve heard things like, ‘This is my welcome home that I never got.’ To hear something like that 40 years, 50 years, after they return from a war really makes your ears perk up,” he said.

While plans are still being formed, the documentary may be used to help raise money for the five Honor Flight organizations operating in Wisconsin.

Kuhn said he expected to go home from the flight changed.

“On an emotional level this is something you don’t get unless you experience it with a veteran,” he said. “To see what it means to them is something I’ll never forget.”

Ted Schmidt of Westboro is one of the veterans interviewed as part of the documentary. He served in Korea in the late stages of the war with the U.S. Army, specializing in 60MM mortars.

“I got over there just about as everything was done with,” Schmidt said. “I got out on a couple night patrols. That was about the extent of my war experience.”

But he saw the toll of the war first-hand.

“We were up in pretty high mountains on some maneuvers and patrols and we came across six or seven (American) bodies that had been up there for maybe not quite a year,” Schmidt said. “We carried them down off the mountain. I remember that very vividly.”

Seeing the Korean War Veterans Memorial – comprised of 19 statues of Americans on patrol - brought back memories.

“I said to my son, ‘That’s me a long time ago.’”

— nphelps@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @nathanphelpsPG or Facebook at Nathan-Phelps-Gannett-Media-Wisconsin