Vietnam: a Collection of War Stories from Nashua Veterans

By Ronald Dube

This is the last installment in a trilogy about my hometowns involvement in our countrys mid-twentieth-century wars. I researched the pages of the Nashua Telegraph from 1060 through 1973, looking for names, leads, and stories about local men and women who participated in Americas most contentious war. The paper published news and features from Derry/Salem, east of Nashua, west to Jaffrey/Rindge, and north to New Boston. The Nashua Telegraph also covered Tyngsboro, Pepperell, and Dunstable, Massachusetts. Sadly, times for newspapers have changed, and the Telegraph has a much-reduced coverage area.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543464368

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Copyright © 2017 by Ronald Dube.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Photo IDs

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

This is the last installment in a trilogy about my hometown’s involvement in our country’s mid-twentieth-century wars. I researched the pages of the Nashua Telegraph from 1060 through 1973, looking for names, leads, and stories about local men and women who participated in America’s most contentious war. The paper published news and features from Derry/Salem, east of Nashua and west to Jaffrey/Rindge, and north to New Boston. The Nashua Telegraph also covered Tyngsboro, Pepperell, and Dunstable, Massachusetts. Sadly, times for newspapers have changed, and the Telegraph has a much-reduced coverage area.

I interviewed many friends and acquaintances. Their stories are told here. There were many who did not want to talk about their experiences in Vietnam. A few had a public record, either in news articles or school yearbooks. I used those for information.

I followed the same general format that I used for the first two books. I began (sometimes ended) each profile with a short biography of their growing up, followed by their war experiences and life after the war. I included personal glimpses and stories. Readers of my other two books found this interesting and brought out the humanity in the veterans. I avoided physical descriptions. I feel that they are basically useless, especially those that begin with tall or lanky. Who cares? Yearbook entries often reveal human qualities expressed by the individuals, so I checked those yearbooks, where available, for those insights.

I also quoted verbatim (for the most part) any awards or medal citations they received. They provided insights to their personalities. Some e-mailed lengthy narratives. Instead of paraphrasing the information, I incorporated them in the story.

Many of the interviewees provided some photos of themselves in Vietnam. I chose what I thought were best. At first, I wanted to run two pictures of each, a then and now. That proved cumbersome, so I decided to go with mostly then pictures. They were the better of the two because many had not aged well (myself included). Some could not find any photos from Vietnam, so I went with the up-to-date ones. I also used photos that had more than one veteran, when possible.

Many Nashua area people served in the military during the thirteen-year-long war in Southeast Asia. Their tours lasted only one year, whereas WWII GIs served for the duration. I certainly could not write about all who might be willing to tell their stories. No doubt I will be criticized like I was after my book about WWII was published. Some said that I did not include their father, grandfather, or others they knew. It is not possible to write about all who served.

Some Major Events of the Vietnam War

Thousands of books and articles have been written about the American involvement in the Southeast Asia war. A brief review of that involvement is included here. The American involvement started as a training and advisory role that escalated to one of counterinsurgency missions and finally to all-out warfare. Nashua area men were involved in all phases.

America’s deep involvement stemmed from the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In early August 1964, two intelligence-gathering ships, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy, were reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese (NVN) patrol boats. As a result, President Johnson asked for and received authorization without actually declaring war to pursue military means to exact revenge and promote peace and stability in Southeast Asia. (There is serious doubt the attacks ever took place.)

This was the gateway for military escalation in Southeast Asia.

Gen. William Westmoreland took advantage of the resolution. He kept asking for more and more men until the U.S. involvement exceeded half a million men by 1968. The following chart is part of a larger one published by the Department of Defense Manpower Data Center. It shows the escalation during the time from 1959 through 1973.

1959=760

1960=900

1961=3,205

1962=11,300

1963=16,300

1964=23,300

1965=184,300

1966=385,300

1967=485,600

1968= 536,100

1969= 475,200

1970= 334,600

1971=156,800

1972=24,200

1973=50

The military and politicians called these increases escalation. A future president called similar increases in another war a surge.

There was no way to demonstrate success. WWII was easy. In that global conflict, success was measured with each town or island liberated from the enemy and indicated on a map until Germany and Japan surrendered.

In Vietnam, this was not possible. More often than not, liberated towns were retaken by the VC at night. So to quantify and qualify success, the military resorted to the body count begun at the Battle of Ia Drang. Enemy dead were heaped into piles for journalists to photograph or film, quite often with proud, grinning GIs. Some piles consisted of at least a hundred dead. The evening news broadcast these grim pictures on TV just in time for dinner. Later, the TV news began showing flag-draped coffins of American soldiers killed in action (KIA). This became unsettling. Americans began asking why we were there. Protests, a few at first, began, especially on college campuses. It would get a lot worse and divide the country. So President LBJ offered an attractive aid package to the North if it gave up its aggression.

In January 1968, army intelligence noticed large numbers of North Vietnam troops being sent around the western end of the demilitarized zone (DMZ). U.S. officials believed the Communists were gearing up for attacks on allied outposts in Southern Vietnam like Khe Sanh and Dak To. This was leading up to Tet. Tet was the tipping point. In early 1968, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars along with the VC attacked many cities and villages, hoping the people would join them in a countrywide uprising, which did not materialize. Before long, every city and village the Communists conquered was lost to American and South Vietnamese troops.

Operation Rolling Thunder was a three-year-long bombing campaign of North Vietnam. It was initiated to bring the Communists to the bargaining table for negotiations. The mission from 1965 to 1968 had five phases designed to destroy the North’s infrastructure. Targets included military ones, bridges, train depots, oil storage depots, and others.

Operation Rolling Thunder failed to bring the North to its knees. The North had a few surprises of its own planned.

Political and military leaders claimed that America was winning the Vietnam War. North Vietnam was not giving up. The country was able to replace those killed, frustrating American leaders.

A frustrated LBJ declared he would not run again for another term. Former vice president and presidential candidate Richard Nixon beat the incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey for the nation’s top office. Nixon secretly authorized the invasion of Laos in an attempt to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a major jungle artery 300 miles long and, in some places, up to 30 miles wide over. which men from the north infiltrated to Vietnam, bypassing large sections of the country under American control, more or less. North Vietnam sent 10,000 troops, 6,600 weapons, 1,700 tons of food, and 800 tons of ammunition per month over the trail. Porters, soldiers on bicycles, and trucks moved the matériel.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was more complicated and structured than its name implies. In Laos, it split into three branches. A fourth route wound its way across the DMZ. Much of the routes were camouflaged with jungle growth. Bridges without railings were built a few inches below the water level, making them difficult to detect from the air. Destruction to parts of the trail was quickly repaired.

The American involvement was winding down by February 1973. The North Vietnamese released the first American POWs the second week of February. American ships began clearing mines from North Vietnamese waters. The last American forces had already left by Thursday, March 29, 1973. There were no more stories about Nashua area men in the newspapers. I stopped looking for them after the April 30 issue.

Could the American escalation in Vietnam have been stopped? That question is debatable and unanswerable. But if we look at JFK’s observations and speeches, we think he could have pulled us out before the great involvement of personnel and money. In 1951, JFK, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and their sister Pat took a trip to Vietnam. An astute observer and listener, JFK learned from American sources there that the French were badly losing their hold on Indochina. He also learned that the most popular leader in Indochina was Ho Chi Minh, a Communist but also a fierce nationalist, like Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia. (Tito, although a Communist, did not tow the Soviet line, much to the vexation of the USSR and the delight of the West.) Many believe Ho Chi Minh would have acted like Josip Tito and not obeyed Moscow’s directives. JFK realized that American intervention in the Indochinese quest for intervention would not succeed. He learned that the elusive enemy would be a formidable foe and that the supply of men for their military was endless. In a speech to the U.S. Senate, he said, in part, I am frankly of the belief that no amount of American military assistance in Indochina can conquer an enemy which is everywhere and at the same time nowhere, an enemy of the people which has the sympathy and covert support of the people. But yet, by the end of 1962, he had authorized the deployment of more than eleven thousand advisers to Vietnam.

He had his doubts about the escalation and told the CBS anchor in a September 2, 1963, interview that in the end, victory over Communism would have to be in the hands of the Vietnamese people. He later noted that he planned to withdraw some troops.

He rationalized that that victory could only be effected by a Vietnamese strongman. The U.S. government hedged its bets on Ngo Dinh Diem, a well-educated, dedicated anti-Communist and Catholic. Unfortunately, he became very unpopular and ineffectual as a leader, especially with the Buddhists, which made up a large majority of the population. The U.S. diplomatic corps lost respect for the man and supported a coup to relieve him. Kennedy learned of the proposal but did nothing to stop it.

The coup was supposed to just depose him and lead him into exile. But he and his influential brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, were assassinated after being captured in early November 1963. JFK mentioned that he planned to withdraw some troops from Vietnam. Three weeks later, JFK himself was killed by a sniper’s bullet in Dallas, Texas.

We like to think that had he survived and finished his first term and hopefully winning a second one, he would have extricated our country from the nightmare that followed. We can look at the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as to how he abhorred war, having experienced it in the South Pacific in WWII. The Soviet Union had placed long-range rockets in that recently turned Communist country. The rockets posed a clear and present danger. JFK’s military advisers urged him to bomb and invade Cuba. JFK knew that a military strike would probably kill Soviet operatives, and the results of which would trigger WWIII with the use of nuclear weapons. Both JFK and Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, were astute enough to understand nuclear war would mean the annihilation of both countries and others too.

They agreed that the USSR would remove the offending missiles, and the United States, in turn, would remove American missiles from Turkey. They also established a hotline for communication.

JFK also refused to heed the advice of some of his advisers to use force to prevent the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, another move that could have triggered nuclear Armageddon.

I like to think that JFK would have stopped the U.S. involvement and focused his formidable intelligence and energies elsewhere. He was one of my heroes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank all those who were willing to talk to me and those who had the courtesy to return my phone calls or written requests for interviews. I would also like to give posthumous thank-yous to three influential teachers I had at Nashua High School (NHS) back in the late 1950s. Ms. Thelma Doe and Ms. Mabel Noyes were sticklers for spelling, grammar, and organization. They wrote awkward sentences from themes or essays on the blackboard for us to dissect and correct. Audible moans and groans erupted when the writer realized his or her work appeared on the board. Those ladies were tough. Ms. Doris Barnes was equally demanding in her Latin class. If we got stuck translating Caesar’s work, she would ask, What did they do? to help us along. I never broke the C barrier in Ms. Doe’s class. And neither did I go below it. I earned a couple of As from Ms. Noyes. I was proud of those grades. But alas, I only managed Cs and Ds in Latin. I changed to German in my junior year and got all As except for one B. I should also thank the brothers at Sacred Heart Academy for getting us off to a good start and academic discipline. They were demanding too.

Rick Lavoie, Conrad Dionne, and Chick Beaulieu deserve special mention for suggesting B Battery members who might agree to have me include them in the narrative. They also helped me track them down. Bishop Francis Christian of the Diocese of Manchester helped with information about the Catholic clerics. Br. Leon Cyr of the Sacred Heart Brothers helped with the Bishop Guertin section of the Home Front chapter and the Br. Albert Vanel murder.

Reference librarians were very helpful. I thank Elaine McConnell of West Point; Peter Ferrara of the USMC History Division in Quantico, Virginia; Paul Giblin, Natalie Ducharme, and Vicki Lukas of the Kelley Library in Salem, New Hampshire, and Margaret Cain, Salem High School librarian; Ann Rhodes of Pinkerton Academy in Derry; Amy Friedman of the Rodgers Memorial Library in Hudson, New Hampshire; Sue Wolpert, Denise Ginzler, and Judy Forty of the Mason Public Library in New Hampshire; Diana Leblanc of the Wadleigh Public Library in Milford, New Hampshire; Kelley Budd of Keene High School; Richard Simoneau and Alison Spencer of Conant High School in Jaffrey; Patrice Campbell, Jeremy Robinson, and Jeff Bernoth of Billerica High School and Diane Lepisto of Monadnock High School in Swanzey, New Hampshire, and Mike Connell from Trinity High School in Manchester; Melissa Mannon from Goffstown, New Hampshire; Eileen Reddy and Amy Hammer of the Manchester Public Library; and Katelyn Duncan of the Worcester Public Library.

Kathy Downey of Lowell High School in Massachusetts; Deborah Lavoie of Madawaska High School; Patrice Brown, secretary to the Frederick Douglass Academy High School on Long Island; and the reference librarians from the Derry Public Library in New Hampshire looked up yearbook and periodicals information. Elaine McConnell curated rare books at the West Point Library, Col. Peter Ferrarra of the History Division, USMC, Quantico, Virginia, and Jorg Dreusecki from the Pelham VFW helped research his town’s KIA, so did Joe McLellan of American Legion Post number 13 in Greenville. Wayne Estey of Peterborough Camera Shop transferred Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides to digital format. Karen Joseph and Eliot Entis of Camp Young Judea helped with the Yoni Netanyahu story. Dawn Oswald allowed me to peruse the Jaffrey Town reports for information. Thanks to Pete Fortier, the state military archivist, and Helen Champa of the adjutant general’s department of the New Hampshire Army National Guard as well as George Nichols for their research.

My son, Luke, deserves a lot of credit for again helping me work the damn computer, a technology that I do not understand and I find confusing and frustrating. He also designed the book’s jacket.

A thank you to Joe McQuaid, of the Manchester Union Leader and Dean Shalhoup of the Nashua Telegraph for their permission to use material printed in their respective newspapers. A thank you to professional photographer, Jodie Andruskevich for his permission to use the formal portrait of Claudine Mahar.

Coat of Arms Significance

The coat of arms is a symbolic representation of the tales of the 197th. The blue shield that incorporates a lion, a diamond, and a fleur-de-lis indicates long service as an infantry unit. The lion represents service in the War of 1812, the diamond represents Civil War service, and the fleur-de-lis represents action in WWI. The red above the blue is service in artillery. The motto A Bas L’Avion is French for Down with the Plane.

National Guard’s Reputation

The National Guard (NG) has long suffered an undeserved reputation as a haven for draft dodgers and shirkers. During the Vietnam War, NG were the derogatory initials standing for Not Going. The NG soldiers were long considered second-rate. I noticed nonverbal discrimination while undergoing basic training at Fort Dix in 1967. We had to yell out RA (regular army) or NG as we entered the mess hall. Those yelling RA were given approving smiles and a cheerful wave of the arm, welcoming them to chow. Us NG guys got a grudging grunt as we entered. We soon learned to yell RA to avoid the negative greeting. Most NGs would serve in RA units shortly anyhow.

However, in the book Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War, the author claims more than a million men joined the NG to avoid the draft. Eventually, about fifteen thousand were called to active duty with a fraction serving in Vietnam.

The disparaging attitude continued much longer after the Vietnam War ended. It appeared again during Indiana senator Dan Quayle’s nomination during the George H. W. Bush (Bush 41) presidential campaign. Critics charged that he joined the Indiana National Guard a short while before his student deferment expired. His draft lottery number was 210, making him relatively safe from active duty.

Quayle became a sergeant and served his entire six-year commitment. In a political speech given in St. Louis, Quayle defended the NG’s reputation. He noted that the National Guard had a long and distinguished history in America’s national defense. He noted that three hundred thousand guardsmen served in WWII and fifteen received the Medal of Honor.

He did say, however, during a meet the press interview, It goes without saying, you had less of a chance of going to Vietnam if you joined the National Guard. Sure and tell that to New Hampshire’s 197th. Steve Schuster, a member of the 197th, took issue over the NG furor and wrote to both New Hampshire senators Warren Rudman and Gordon Humphrey. He wrote,

I write to you out of frustration and anger that I and I am sure all present and former guardsmen feel with the current news media attacks on Senator Quayle and more importantly the National Guard. Their branding by implication the National Guard as a safe haven in which cowards and rich boys may hide while others do their fighting and secure their freedom is dastardly and total unconscionable. My fellow Granite Staters, as well as thousands of other guardsmen from all walks of life and social status served their country valiantly and unselfishly in the Republic of Vietnam from September 1968 to September 1969, a time when U.S. casualties were at their highest during the entire Vietnam era.

Schuster urged the senators to pass a resolution stating that fallen guardsmen shall not have served in vain and reaffirming a statement of support for the Guard and the reserves.

In October 1988, Senator Humphrey wrote a tribute to the New Hampshire National Guard (NHNG) in the Congressional Record. The statement reads,

We recognize the National Guard and the Reserves as essential to the strength of our nation and the maintenance of world peace. They require and deserve the interest and support of the American business community, as well as every segment of our society.

It is interesting to note that disparaging remarks and attitude toward the National Guard are nonexistent in modern times.

About a million men served in the National Guard in the 1960s. About fifteen thousand were activated, and some of those served in Vietnam.

Escape to Canada was another possibility open to draft resisters. But far fewer went into exile in Canada compared to how many Canadians came here to join the American armed forces. About forty thousand Canadians joined the U.S. armed forces to fight in Vietnam. Pres. Jimmy Carter eventually pardoned those who escaped to Canada and elsewhere.

DOD Calls up the New Hampshire 197th

The Department of Defense (DOD) activated 88 units in 34 states in the spring of 1968. The call-up involved 24,550 reservists, 10,000 of whom were slated for duty in Vietnam. Among these were 26 officers, 3 warrant officers, and 491 enlisted men from the 197th. The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last time the New Hampshire National Guard was activated.

197th’s History

The red bar at the top represents artillery, while the winged projectile within it signifies antiaircraft, the mission of the 197 in WWII. The blue shield represents the unit’s long service in the infantry. The golden lion represents service in the War of 1812, and the white diamond is for Civil War service. The fleur-de-lis and the motto A Bas L’Avion (Down with the Plane) come from WWI. After WWII, the 197th became a field artillery unit. The 197th’s Third Battalion was activated for service in Vietnam. The Third Battalion was inactivated in 1991, and its flags were retired. The two remaining field artillery battalions were merged and became the 3/197th. Its new mission became artillery rocket systems, which replaced the howitzers.

Five batteries, some combined from other New Hampshire units, were selected to go to Vietnam. The headquarters battery came from Portsmouth; the service battery came from Somersworth. Batteries A, B, and C came from Manchester, Nashua, and Franklin, respectively. Over five hundred guardsmen were called.

The 197th Takes Issue with the Union Leader

In its year-end review of 1968, the Manchester Union Leader ranked the battery’s activation as the fourth most important happening of the year. Unit members said the issue ranked higher than fourth.

I checked the Union Leader for December 1968 for the list but could not find it. The December 15 issue was not printed for some reason, so that paper might have had the top ranking list. The year 1968 was a pivotal year. RFK and MLK, Jr. were assassinated. The USS Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans. The Tet Offensive was launched. Sen. Eugene McCarthy scores big in New Hampshire primary. LBJ decided not to run for reelection. There might have been local stories scored higher than the activation of the 197th.

Infusion: a Major Concern

In January 1969, rumors of infusion of some 197th members to other units were upsetting to most. Spec. 5 Howard Gloddy of Battery C, Third Battalion wrote a letter to the Union Leader expressing major concern about the upcoming infusions. He wrote,

We were inspected by 2nd Lieutenants up to a Lieutenant General. We received praise on teamwork, morale, attitude, and good shooting. We were told that a better unit is hard to find. With the talk about infusion, many of us will be separated and assigned to other units. We will no longer be a team that we are now. Soldiers feel that infusion will be against one of basic principles, that if called to active duty, you go, serve, and come home as a unit.

Effectiveness can be attributed to just one factor; knowing our jobs and each team member. We have trained together, worked together, and, in most cases known one another for years. We are a proud unit.

Sen. Tom McIntyre of New Hampshire was quoted in a February 1969 issue of the Nashua Telegraph that he was alarmed at the army’s procedure in which units were broken up and infused with others.

But his alarm may have been paying lip service to the situation. Nevertheless, it was nonconsequential and ignored by the army. Infusion took place anyway. We are not sure if the senator was influential enough to stop the infusion. He was chairman to the Armed Services Subcommittee on Research and Development. He was a strong initial supporter of the Vietnam War but later opposed it, claiming, It was tearing the country apart.

Phu Loi—Site of Mass Poisoning

B Battery was slated for Phu Loi, located a few miles northeast of Saigon and about fifteen miles east of Củ Chi, the site of an extensive tunnel system complex. It was a prison camp before the United States became embroiled in Vietnam. Hundreds of prisoners died when they ate tainted bread.

B Battery Sends $61 to Santa Fund

Capt. Roland Labonte wrote a message to the Santa Fund established by the Nashua Telegraph. He wrote,

This year (1968), even though separated by some 12,000 miles, Bravo Battery wishes to participate in this outstanding project as we have practiced last year. B Battery sent $61 to the fund.

The bishop of Phu Cuong blessed the gifts helicoptered into a nearby orphanage. The children appeared happy with the small bags of candy, the toothbrushes, and the facecloths they received.

Richard A. Lavoie—Neighborhood Kid, Sergeant on the 155 mm Howitzer

Richard Ricka A. Lavoie was one of five neighborhood boys growing up together, going to the same schools, joining Boy Scout Troop 272, playing Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball, and holding raucous underage beer parties that drew the police from complaining neighbors. Ricka Lavoie, formerly of Linwood Street, along with Joe Adamonis, Norm Farland, and Paul Belanger were four of the five who joined the National Guard and went to Vietnam. My brother, Moe, was the fifth. He served in the Army Reserve for six years.

Ricka graduated from NHS in 1964. His Tusitala yearbook reads,

Rick-a strong, good-looking blond-often found at Roland’s or bombing around in a ’57 Chev-likes to go to Bill’s for recreation-full of fun and humor-enjoys football-good storyteller. After School Employment I, II, III.

After his graduation from NHS, he bought himself his dream car, a Corvette. Shortly after, the looming, malevolent presence of the local draft board sent him a notification of its intent to get him in the military by giving him an I-A Selective Service classification, ready for induction. He worried about being drafted and losing the car because he would not be able to afford it. Nashua police officer Bill Burns (featured in the Home Front chapter) asked why he had the ’Vette up for sale. Lavoie said he could not afford it if drafted, and he could not expect his parents to make the payments. Burns suggested the National Guard as a compromise. Lavoie joined in 1965, before events began cranking up.

Rumors about activation began in 1967. The 197th left for Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Monday 20, 1968. Officers kept the men busy with reveille at 5:00 a.m. and physical training to get in shape with three-mile runs and then firing practice rounds on the 155 mm howitzer. They had lessons on nuclear weapons.

Many spent off hours playing softball, volleyball, and shuffleboard at the service club. They liked playing cribbage and whist and going to the movies. They listened to the radio and became nostalgic when they heard songs like Honey by Bobby Goldsboro.

Rick Lavoie came home on June 29 for the weekend. He didn’t tell his wife. He entered the house through the cellar and jumped into bed, startling her. It cost him $44 to come home. He met with some of the other men at the National Club for an evening of socialization and military bonding. It cost Lavoie $60 to return to North Carolina.

In late July, Linda (Howe) Lavoie told her husband that she was pretty sure she was expecting their first child. He was very pleased but not about the prospect of his being in Vietnam when she gave birth.

B Battery ended their training on August 27. They headed home for a few days before reporting back and getting ready to leave for Vietnam on Monday, September 16.

Rick Lavoie had guard duty on Sunday evening. Many of the men wanted to whoop it up or try to forget what was about to happen, so they went out drinking. Lavoie said they left the barracks a mess with a plugged-up drain to the toilet. They left the showers and sinks run over, flooding the floor up to the stairs.

A sergeant from the security barracks called Lavoie, telling him that the men were wrecking the place. They tried to end the mayhem but couldn’t. Five officers came in to help, and the men began to sober up. Nine men got busted. They had to clean up the barracks until 3:30 a.m. Lavoie turned in at 4:30 a.m. and was up at 5:00 a.m. for formation and departure. Before leaving, he went to confession, attended Mass, and received Communion. He started counting days to get it over with. He wrote that his wife took it pretty good.

The flight lasted twenty-four hours with a refueling stop in Alaska. Although the unit trained in hot, humid North Carolina, Lavoie felt the more intense conditions in Vietnam. The time in North Carolina helped prepare the physiology of the men for the heat, so their bodies were somewhat prepared for the tropical climate. I experienced a similar effect after the Peace Corps training in Carbondale, Illinois. It was hot and humid too, so we were somewhat OK for the heat and humidity of Niger.

All six of their 155 mm howitzers were brought to Vietnam. Three were set up, and the others were there for future use. The 197th hooked up with the regular army and their 105 mm howitzers.

Lavoie’s first home in Vietnam was a bunker, something he would get used to. He found an old fan and got it working, which helped. There was a lot of shooting outside the base perimeter. Lavoie wrote in his diary, Only 12 more months to go. B Battery began work immediately, building and improving parapets, filling sandbags, and getting their guns ready to fire by October 4. The men performed guard duty and did kitchen police (KP) duty in the mess hall.

B Battery would be stationed at Phu Loi. The officer of the day saw some VC real close. Conrad Dionne went out with a flak jacket and a loaded weapon. On September 25, he wrote that there were a lot of small arms fire. Officers recognized Lavoie’s leadership abilities and appointed him section chief on Gun 1. Nine men worked a gun—two carried the tray with the 120-pound projectile, two others rammed it in the tube, and one pulled the lanyard. They were affectionately called gun bunnies.

By mid-December, B Battery had fired 9,154 rounds, with 1,092 in a seventy-two-hour period and a 1,358 total in one week. A Battery from Manchester fired 10,035 by mid-December, and C Battery from Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, Franklin, and Laconia fired 7,346.

By mid-January 1969, the 197th fired a total of 42,188 rounds with B Battery firing the most at 15,950. Some of those rounds were illumination rounds. B Battery received a moniker. It was called the light battery because it held the record for firing more illumination rounds than any other field artillery unit in Vietnam. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) called the unit the power and light company.

B Battery sank a sampan and blew up a few VC bunkers and cave entrances on October 10. The 155s could fire up to twelve miles. Being in Vietnam was stressful enough, but psychic Jeane Dixon added to it with her prediction of a big attack before midnight on November 4. B Battery heard no noise by 8 pm, and nothing happened. It’s hard to determine if anyone believed her tripe, even though she did predict JFK’s assassination.

The dry season began on October 28. The long-lasting puddles dried up, leaving exposed surfaces dusty.

Drinking beer and watching movies were popular during off hours. Divorce, American Style, Two for the R, Easy Come, Easy Go, The Green Berets, and Dark of the Sun came through the base.

The army spared no expense celebrating Thanksgiving. Traditional food was flown in and prepared for the men. Lavoie kept the menu. It included shrimp cocktail, crackers, assorted nuts and candies, milk, ice tea, fruitcake, mincemeat pie, pumpkin pie, roast turkey, corn bread gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and glazed sweet potatoes.

The men sometimes looked up and saw what they called the freedom plane and hoped they would be on one soon.

Lavoie suffered some medical issues. He spent time in the hospital for a chronic intestinal problem. He injured his toe one early morning firing the 155 at four o’clock. The projectile slipped out of the tube and landed on his foot. Nothing broke, but he feared he’d lose a few toenails. Tests later confirmed he had two broken toes. Two more projectiles fell on his feet during his tour.

The men always anticipated letters and photos from home. You can detect disappointment in Lavoie’s diary when he did not get any mail. He wrote back saying things were OK so as not to worry relatives and friends back home. He often sent photos of the guys enjoying themselves in Vietnam.

Judy Torosian, a fifth-grader, began a regular correspondence with Lavoie. They exchanged cards, letters, and family photos. I had Judy Torosian in a biology class when I taught at Nashua High School in the 1970s.

The Nashua unit donated six hundred pounds of gifts for a children’s Christmas party at the nearby Binh Swong compound. There were 48 families with 148 children that lived there.

The men kept up their sense of humor. Cpl. Will Poloski, a former golf pro, used a mattock as a club to blast a ball from a sand trap for a photo op.

Lavoie, PFC Alan Vaskas, and Spec. 5 Stephen Schuster sent a photo of their recently completed bunker, inviting Nashuans to come to Vietnam and rent it. Their ad read,

Newly completed two-room bunker with barbed wire enclosed yard, pool in the back, wooden floors, built in cabinet and bar, fluorescent lighting. Excellent location: chapel nearby, airport five minutes away, only 45 minutes from downtown Saigon: For more information write to any of the three.

There were no takers.

Action near the base began in earnest the last week of February 1969. Enemy fire on the twenty-third hit a jeep, killing a few Cambodians. Two more Cambodians were killed the next day on the perimeter. The unit anticipated a major hit on February 26, so they put fuses in all the rounds. Sergeant Dupont chewed out the crew on the following day for being too slow to fire. A strike force moved out. The ARVN replaced them. Some brought their families. Lavoie wrote, To me that’s hard to understand.

Conditions abated, so in early March, Lavoie went to Saigon and spent lots of money on steam baths and bars.

The unit had been in-country for six months by March 17. He wrote, Time still seems to be going pretty fast. They started work at 5:00 a.m. and finished at 7:30 p.m. Keeping busy may have helped.

Lavoie had a scare on March 20. He was watching a movie when he saw a lot of flashes going off. He thought they were under attack but soon noticed it was people taking pictures.

On April 20, Captain Labonte and another soldier were KIA in a mortar attack. Lavoie wrote, Boy, what a feeling to see someone dead that a few hours before you were drinking beer and laughing with. He thought of home and his wife, Linda, and their newborn son, Shayne. He wrote, My wife is the biggest morale booster I have. Her and Shayne.

About a week later, he began to write the number of days until the tour ended. He kept tabs every day starting April 26 (143 days to go).

Enemy activity intensified. Lavoie reported the compound being hit by mortar fire and small rounds. A jet was shot down overhead. He watched the pilot drift down and land in the base camp. As a rescue crew sped to him, he fainted.

Infusion took place at this time. It started in February. The army wanted to place some of the men into other units to avoid situations that would leave voids in other units as men were released from active duty. Lavoie was sent to a service battery near Tây Ninh. Rockets started hitting the base. As soon as the plane landed, Lavoie jumped out of the jeep and ran to the nearest bunker.

He vehemently objected at the assignment and asked his way up the chain of command to reassign him. He was assigned to a 105 mm howitzer with a promotion to E-6 and section chief. He noted that the 105 was somewhat similar to the 155s.

Lavoie continued to cherish mail and packages from home. He shared Playboy magazine, always a welcome present for men. He received some Ayds tablets, a pill at the time that helped suppress appetites. He had gained some weight and wanted to lose a few pounds. He also received cigars and books.

B Battery had a few unscrupulous members causing mischief during their tour. Lavoie was told to be aware of some CIA agents checking rumors that someone in his section had pot and they were trying to get him. Someone stole one thousand piastres from him on July 4. Lavoie believed it was someone in his section. He wrote that if he caught him, his ass is Grass. Another time, he placed $5 on a table for a soda, and someone walked off with it.

Lavoie’s section fired eight hundred rounds on July 1. He dreamed about getting two motorcycles when he came home. One was a BSA Victory to take to work and a TR 6 R for the road. Two factors would determine the decision—money and his wife’s opinion.

Rumors abounded that they might be going home early. But a brigadier general dashed those rumors and told them that September 13 was the day. Gen. William Westmoreland’s replacement, Gen. Creighton Abrams, came to base on a quick tour and left after ten minutes.

On August 7, Lavoie received a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement against hostile forces during the time between January 17, 1969, and March 5, 1969. The citation, in part, read,

Sgt. Lavoie distinguished himself while serving as gunner, Sixth Howitzer Section, Battery B, 3d Battalion, 197th Field Artillery 23d Artillery Group, during Operations Centurion IV and V at remote fire support bases in Long Khan and Biên Hòa provinces in the republic of Vietnam. Using sound judgment and professional knowledge, Sgt. Lavoie continually accomplished his job in an exemplary manner, and his ability to cope with any emergency with timely, effective decisions enabled his section to function under the most adverse conditions. In the absence of his section chief, he directed the section, performing his duty in a proficient manner, and through his initiative, perseverance and leadership abilities, he was a guide and inspiration to his section.

Rick Lavoie returned to Nashua Corporation after repatriation. His boss, a former marine, told him, Glad to have you back. He retired from there after forty-one years.

He and Linda had three more children—Matt, Joel, and Meghan.

Gerard Beaulieu—Jungle Scout, Small Business Owner

Gerard Chick Beaulieu joined the National Guard in 1966 so he would not have to go to Vietnam. After joining, he thought, I’m in. I’m OK. He was home for a year after completing basic training and spending six months at Fort Dix, working as a cook. But rumors about being activated began to spread in March–April 1968 after New Hampshire governor John King volunteered the Thirty-Fourth Battalion for active duty.

He said, Everybody got nervous. Up until it happened, nobody thought it would. We were all shocked. It didn’t affect me as much as the others. I was twenty-two and single. Many of the others were twenty to twenty-two and recently married. Forty percent of them eventually divorced after returning home.

Beaulieu worked in the Enlisted Men’s Club for his first three months in-country. But he gave the battery commander and the executive officer a rash of grief on evening.

A few days later, a helicopter flew in and whisked him away to the jungle for duty with the Green Berets. Bealieu explained, We were all in our early twenties and complained about everything. The Special Forces (SF) assigned him to reconnaissance, calling in artillery strikes. He worked with Cambodians.

He enjoyed working with the Green Berets, calling them absolutely crazy. He told of two teams working the base perimeter, and the end of the shift compared the number of VC ears each team had cut off from enemy they killed.

The Special Forces were very skilled in the art and science of warfare. Beaulieu watched one of them take a breech mechanism apart at night and put it back together. He said he did not like working with the Vietnamese because it was not 100 percent clear where their loyalties were. Not so with the Cambodians. Most of the men liked working with them.

The Special Forces camp was resupplied by helicopter every two to three days. The VC harassed the helicopters as they approached the camp. He said, We had a stretch when we got hit quite a bit. Several soldiers were killed in those rocket attacks.

Beaulieu experienced some pleasures in-country. He said the food was good. Cigarettes cost $14 for ten cartons. There was no postage for shipping them home, so he sent some to his parents. He went to Bangkok for his R and R time. Prices were low there too. He bought some audio equipment that cost $3,000 back home, but he paid $1,500.

He worked with the Special Forces for about four months. Then he got sick. He drank some polluted water from a B-52 bomb crater and was evacuated by helicopter when his temperature wavered between 104 and 106 degrees. The condition left him weak for a month. He became a section chief on a howitzer after he regained his strength and returned to duty. By then, it was almost time to come home.

He worked for a time with the father of a girl he was dating. They worked for Rodgers Brothers Construction, building chimneys and doing roofs. After learning the business, Beaulieu decided to start his own construction company, adding siding, gutters, and replacement doors and windows to the roof work. He currently employs twelve people.

Chick Beaulieu grew up on French Hill, where he played on Little League teams and ward baseball teams. He rode his bicycle to Field’s Grove in the summer to go swimming. He graduated from Nashua High School in 1962, where he was elected to the National Honor Society. His grades were good enough to qualify him for the prestigious Upper Quarter. His yearbook entry reads,

Chick-tall and good-looking-a real easy blusher-fun to have around-enjoys football and bowling very much-often seen eating any flavors of ice cream-a good worker-has worked for construction companies-immediate plans, to join the Navy-ultimate ambition, to be an industrial electrician.

Beaulieu’s marriage ended in divorce.

His father coined Chick’s nickname. When he came back from WWII, he called his young son Chick, and the moniker stuck.

Conrad Dionne—Communications Specialist, Bronze Star Recipient, Developer

Four months after arriving in-country, Conrad Dionne received an ominous telegram from Western Union, informing him that his father would die within thirty days. If he wanted to see him alive, he should seek emergency leave. His father, Romeo, was dying from emphysema after smoking heavily for much of his adult life.

Conrad Dionne asked Capt. Roland Labonte to approve the temporary leave.