Marine vet, 89, of Glen Cove recruits for Honor Flight LI, fundraiser 

She was one of the early female enlistees in the U.S. Marine Corps, joining in 1951, just three years after the Marines were integrated to include women.

She later served as a poster child for recruitment of women, featured on a U.S. Postal Service stamp titled "Women in Our Armed Services" — because, 89-year-old Evelyn Kandel of Glen Cove said this week with a laugh, "I was 5-foot-8, weighed 120 pounds, was blond-haired and blue-eyed and they said, 'Hey, gorgeous. We Want You!'"

On Saturday, the retired Marine Corps sergeant, who just finished her term as Nassau County poet laureate, will do a little recruiting of her own. She will be a guest of honor, along with actress Lorraine Bracco of "The Sopranos" and "Goodfellas" fame, at the "Listen to the Wind 2022 Gala" fundraiser for Honor Flight Long Island at the Sagaponack Farm Distillery on Sagg Road, Sagaponack.

The program flies veterans, cost-free, for a daylong tour of the war memorials in Washington, D.C., including the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War monument sites.

Since 2005, the national Honor Flight program, launched to honor aging World War II veterans but later expanded to include veterans of all conflicts, has flown more than 245,000 to visit the memorials in Washington. The spokesman for Honor Flight Long Island, William Donahue, said that since 2007, the local chapter has flown more than 1,700 veterans on 43 flights out of Long Island MacArthur Airport with the cooperation of Southwest Airlines.

"Why is this important?" Kandel said of the Honor Flight experience. "Oh, my God. You got about an hour? First of all, everybody says to these veterans, 'Thank you for your service.' . . . And everything is beautifully arranged and you're cared for the entire time you're in their care the day you fly.

"You have a guardian, a volunteer, who assists you. You get a delicious boxed lunch on the plane on the way down and then have a delicious sit-down dinner when you come back. In Washington, they take you to the World War II monument, then the Korean War monument and, of course, everyone visits the [Vietnam Memorial] wall — because it's so awesome. You're completely cared for.

"I can't praise it enough."

The most-recent Honor Flight Long Island flight took place June 4, with 38 veterans — 37 of them Vietnam veterans — flown to Washington for the day, Donahue said. The next scheduled flight is Sept. 23.

Both Donahue and Kandel agreed the flights have proved especially important for Vietnam vets, many of whom, unlike their World War II and Korean War brethren, returned home to protests instead of fanfare.

 "When these guys came home from Vietnam, it was embarrassing," Kandel said. "They didn't have anything to do with the politics. They were over there, kids, doing what they were asked to do, and then they came home and people turned their backs on them. It was shameful."

Fundraiser tickets are $250 and can be purchased at the door or online at listentothewindhfli.org. Doors open at 5 p.m.; rain date is Sunday.

Flight program sponsorships also are being sought, with donations beginning at $1,000 for "Friends of Evelyn," with additional sponsorship levels including Bronze ($5,000), Silver ($7,500), Gold ($12,500), Platinum ($25,000) and Grand ($50,000).

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”