The Vietnam War played a crucial part in my younger life, directly resulting in my starting over in this new homeland in America. I sometimes relive it, in bits and pieces of memories that surface in my dreams and eventually ended up on the pages of my book Once upon a Mulberry Field. Likewise, other people whose lives were impacted by the war also found their own ways to settle the past — like the resilient Vietnam veterans in this CNN article who take part every year in a flight of nostalgia.

My hat’s off to them, and to all veterans, on this Memorial Day weekend — and always.

Click here to read the CNN article. Make sure you click on all 16 pictures in the photo gallery of the article for a glimpse at some of the iconic flying machines of the Vietnam War era.