Pen pals meet after 27 years for Hudson Valley Honor Flight

MID-HUDSON– Back in January of 1997, Angie Walker, a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from Georgia, received a letter while aboard the USS Stump in the Arabian Gulf during Operation Joint Endeavor that read “for any service member.”

Walker opened the note up and found words of encouragement from Joe Sills Jr., a Korean War veteran from Ulster County. The pair became pen pals for two decades, lost touch only to find each other again, and on Saturday will travel together to Washington, D.C. with the Hudson Valley Honor Flight.

Hudson Valley Honor Flight: Mission 34 will leave at 6:30 a.m. from New York Stewart International Airport and return at 8 p.m. The contingent will include veterans from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, and Vietnam.

“This is like a miracle come true,” said Sills, 92, of Ulster Park. “This trip with Angie will be the trip of my life. It is a dream come true. My sister wrote me a letter every day when I was in Korea and that is what prompted me to start writing letters. I never expected to get answers or for this to happen.”

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