Family, friends line his street to applaud and cheer and wave flags

By william K. ALCORN | alcorn@vindy.com

BERLIN CENTER

Vietnam War Army veteran Larry Truitt got the kind of “welcome home” veterans of that war wished they had received in the 1960s and 1970s.

Family, friends, neighbors and fellow military veterans lined Hoyle Road near the Truitt home Sunday waving U.S. flags, applauding and cheering.

Many had signs:

“Welcome Home Hero.”

“Thank You for Your Service Mr. Truitt.”

“God Bless the U.S.A.”

Truitt was returning from a weekend Honor Flight for Vietnam veterans who received a Purple Heart.

In Pruitt’s case, he earned two of them.

Honor Flights are conducted by nonprofit organizations dedicated to transporting U.S. military veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the memorials of the wars in which they fought, at no cost to the veterans.

Truitt, who had been to Washington before and seen the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, said traveling with other Vietnam veterans was special.

“The applause in the airport was a great surprise as was the police escort wherever we went. It was impressive what they did for us,” he said.

Truitt, one of 10 children born to Richard S. Truitt, who is deceased, and Edith Mae Truitt, 95, who lives in Berlin Center, was stunned by the outpouring of affection from his friends and neighbors.

He said, “Oh my God,” said his wife, Linda, who rode home with him from the airport and “started crying.”

“I never expected anything like this,” said Truitt, who served as a machine gunner with the Army’s 1st Cavalry in 1967 and 1968 and was wounded twice. He still has two pieces of shrapnel in his body, one in his heart.

“It’s great,” said Ken Calhoun, commander of Ellsworth VFW Post 8571 and a friend and fellow Vietnam veteran.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Calhoun said.

Truitt’s daughter, Heather Baird of Canfield, put together Sunday’s event along with friends Sharry Himes of Berlin Center and Sheila Rhelinger of Lake Milton. A second Truitt daughter, Christine Schweer, lives in California.

He also has six grandchildren.

Baird said a Bible given to her father by his grandmother when he was drafted probably saved his life.

“A bullet struck the Bible, which he carried in his left chest pocket. Without that Bible, he would have never survived,” Baird said.

The highly decorated Truitt, retired from Delphi Packard, has had a very productive life after Vietnam, touching many people in the community.

He is active in the Berlin-Ellsworth Ruritans, VFW Post 9571 in Ellsworth, Gethsemane Lutheran Church and the Victory Lutheran Church food pantry. He works the Friday night fish fry at Post 8571 and participates with the Color Guard for home Western Reserve High School football games.

“He has a lot of friends,” Calhoun said of Truitt.