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November 11 was observed as Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States. It is a time to look back on the sacrifices of military veterans on both sides of the international border.
Landmine sweeping in Vietnam
“I served my country, and I'm proud of it." These are the words of veteran Louis Paul of Pleasant Point as he looks back on his military service in Vietnam.
Louis "Bee" Paul was only 17 when he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on July 24, 1968. "I had gotten kicked out of grade school, so it was either join the military or stay home and possibly get into trouble. I made the best choice," he recalls of his decision.
His path to signing up with the Marines was also influenced by the fact that his namesake uncle, Louis Joseph Dana, had been serving in that branch of the military when he was killed in the Korean War. Private First Class Dana, a member of the 4.2" Mortar Company, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, was seriously wounded while fighting the enemy in Korea and died of those wounds on November 4, 1950. The 19-year-old was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Meal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation and Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
Other friends and neighbors who enlisted in the Marine Corps at about the same time as Paul were David Homan, Reggie Stanley, Gilbert Stanley, Eugene Stanley and Fred Francis.
After completing boot camp at Parris Island, Paul was sent to Puerto Rico for six months of landmine sweeping training. He came home but soon received orders to join the Westpac deployment to Vietnam. "I went right into the fighting in the jungles north of Hanoi when we arrived," he recalls. "When you're on a landmine sweeping team, you have to pay attention." He adds, "It was really too much stress for everybody."
On February 13, 1970, Lance Corporal Louis Paul was wounded in the hand after he and fellow Marines set off a landmine. "Quite a few people got medevaced out. Some went home. Some stayed. I stayed in the hospital for a week before being sent back to the same [dangerous] conditions."
Paul returned to Pleasant Point on July 30, 1970, and recalls of the journey, "I was very happy. I needed to go home."
Now 63 years old and happily married to wife Barbara for 43 years, Paul finds it difficult to look back at his days in Vietnam, but if he had it to do over, he says, "I still would have done the same thing and served my country."
Shelled at Outpost Harry
Edwin "Eddie" Knight of Lubec was living in his hometown of Wethersfield, Conn., when he and his twin brother Burton were drafted into the U.S. Army in late 1952 during the Korean War. "My parents were shook up," he recalls of that news.
The brothers travelled by train to Camp Kilmer for their five-day indoctrination and then participated in 16 weeks of advanced infantry basics at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa. "We went home for five days and then we went back to Camp Kilmer to be loaded on boats. We went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, then through the Panama Canal and then travelled to Japan, where they took our Class A dress uniforms and gave us combat uniforms and weapons," he says.
"Outpost Harry was a well-fought, remote area on one of three mountains outside Inchon," remembers Knight of his days and nights battling the enemy in Korea. "The Americans would be on it one day and off the next. That's where we spent a month or two."
More than 88,000 rounds of Chinese artillery fell on Outpost Harry. Most of the fighting occurred at night, under heavy mortar fire, while the daylight hours were spent evacuating the dead and wounded, sending in supplies and repairing fortified positions.
"They separated my brother and I on the line, which was very hard for both of us," Knight adds. "Before we left, my mother had said to me to take care of him because I was stronger."
The weather in Korea ranged from extremely hot and very rainy in the summer to far below zero in the winter months.
"I spent nine months on the front lines and have 100 percent disability from my loss of hearing, and the experience left me with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)," says Knight of his physical and psychological wounds. "My brother survived and went home, but he was so affected by PTSD that he couldn't stop smoking. He tried everything to quit, but nothing worked. He died a couple of years ago."
It was brother Burton who introduced Knight to Katherine Gerrish, and they have been happily married for 26 years. They purchased a house in Lubec in 2002 and permanently moved to the town 10 years ago.
Knight earned a Combat Infantry Badge and Bronze Star, but painful memories of his time in South Korea have prevented him from participating in Memorial Day observances.
Surviving by the grace of God
World War II survivor Walter Avery of Grand Manan, now 95, served in the Royal Canadian Navy aboard a vessel that escorted other Allied ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Avery was a "dyed-in-the-wool" 19-year-old patriot when he enlisted back in August of 1940. "We started training in Saint John, rowing in the harbour, and then went to Halifax in September for training. Sometime during the latter part of October, I went up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal to pick up a ship to become a crew member," he says.
"That was my first Christmas away from home," Avery recalls of that December 75 years ago. "In February, I went overseas to Greenwich, Scotland. It was a long trip -- 18 days -- with a very slow convoy, but the weather was favorable."
Avery was assigned to the corvette HMCS Mayflower and recalls everyone being sick the first day out. "It was cold, and a lot of the men aboard were off the prairie, so it was all new to them."
During the next three years, the Mayflower would escort convoys composed of 30 to 50 vessels. "We didn't really worry about an attack from an enemy airplane," says Avery. "Our biggest fear was of submarines. They would try to sink as many vessels as they could, and an unfortunate duty for us was picking up survivors. During my time aboard [the ocean escort], I saw a lot of action -- ships that were torpedoed that were on fire."
He recalls times when his vessel was in port for a week or more. "You'd forget the war was on. Then you'd see ships on fire."
Avery says, "We never had attacks on our ship. You lived one day at a time and, by the grace of God, we survived it."
Returning to Grand Manan after his wartime service, Avery married Madeline Chute in 1946. They raised four children, and he retired from the Department of Fisheries in 1986.
"I'm very grateful for my 95 years on this earth," sums up Avery. "I've been lucky." |
