PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Dozens of veterans received a warm welcome after returning from Tuesday’s honor flight.

For Vietnam veterans like Edwin Keith, it meant everything.

“When I came home, the welcome was not like this,” he explained.

But on Tuesday, Keith and 76 other veterans went on a day-long honor flight to Washington, D.C., to visit war memorials built in their honor.

This time, they received a proper welcome home.

“I’ve been crying off and on all the way through, and I’m just now starting to get my composure back a little bit,” said Keith. “And I’ll probably lose it again when I get out of here.”

Charles “Chuck” Keefer also cried as he went down the hallway, and said this was the welcome home he never experienced.

“This is much much different from when I came home,” he explained. “I had three boys.”

“My wife told the boys not to tell anybody who their father was,” Keefer continued. “Seriously.”

News Channel 8 reporter Nicole Rogers asked Keefer, “To go from that to this welcome today, what does that mean to you?”

“It’s amazing,” he cried. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Now, Keith and other Vietnam veterans work hard to ensure anyone returning home from serving our great nation receives the honor and respect they deserve.

“We made sure they were welcome home and not called baby killers and names like that,” he explained. “I’m grateful to have served our country, and I wish a lot of young men would follow and serve their country the way former vets have because we need them.”