Though hailing from every branch and across numerous service eras, each with their own challenges and triumphs, for a few hours on Thursday morning the 200-some veterans about to board the Gateway Clipper Fleet’s Empress would soon all be in the same boat.

“You go through life and sometimes you feel all alone, but in the service you’re all part of something,” said Akron native Ron Dykes from the Station Square dock on Thursday morning, a bagpiper playing patriotic songs nearby.

A Navy veteran, Dykes served two years as a radar operator in Japan aboard a missile frigate called the USS Rodney M. Davis. After his service concluded, his journey would eventually lead him to stay at the Butler VA Medical Center Domiciliary, for addiction and mental health treatment.

“We thrive when we’re all

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