Family honors vets passing with Honor Flight donation
May 27, 2025
The memory of Army Vietnam War veteran Jerry Josephson of Hutchinson lives on. While Josephson passed away March 8, 2025 due to complications related to Agent Orange. He made an impact on so many people, and his loved ones are paying it forward.
Josephson went on his Kansas Honor Flight trip in April 2019, Kansas Honor Flight No. 69. His family designated Kansas Honor Flight as the recipient of his memorial. The generous contributions will send three other veterans on their own trip of a lifetime.
he Kansas Honor Flight is an all-volunteer organization that works to honor Kansas veterans of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War by providing them with an all-expense-paid trip of honor and remembrance to visit their memorials in Washington, D.C.
The organization also works to educate the youth and communities throughout Kansas about the impact of these historic wars and the freedoms our nation enjoys because of the service of our veterans. KHF is part of the National Honor Flight Network, an organization comprised of over 130 hubs dedicated to serving our veterans.
Josephson went on his Honor Flight accompanied by his daughter Brecken MacMahon. After MacMahon traveled with her father on the flight, it inspired her husband to take his own father, World War II veteran Earl Gentry - on a California Honor Flight.
“They would of never gone if it hadn’t been for KHF and my dad and I going on the 69th KHF," Brecken MacMahon said. "So thank you! One of the greatest things I’ve ever been a part of.”
Josephsonwas born Sep. 3, 1947, in Hutchinson, to Jack Leon and Norma Jean (Tice) Josephson. He graduated from Nickerson High School in 1965.
Three months after graduating high school, he was drafted into the United States Army, serving in Vietnam. After returning from Vietnam, Jerry attended barber school. On April 6, 1968, he married his high school sweetheart, Vicki Sue Dean, in Hutchinson. For more than 46 years, he owned Jerry’s Barber Styling, in South Hutchinson.
In 1998, Jerry was diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcoma, a result of exposure to Agent Orange during Vietnam. Despite his diagnosis and needed procedures, he remained positive, thankful, and appreciative for everything the Veteran’s Administration did for him, as well as his family and friends.
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