James Martin Vietnam War Veteran U.S. Marine Corps Natick Veterans Oral History Project

this is Friday June 7th 2019 we are in Natick Massachusetts and this tape is part of the Moores Institute library's continuing veterans oral history project my name is Maureen Sullivan and we are privileged to have with us today Jim Martin welcome Jim thank God to be here may I ask when you were born October 14th I teach 44 and where were you born I was born a Boston lying in hospital and what community do you currently live in I live in a community of Westwood Massachusetts your marital status I am married for 46 years do you have children I have two daughters and two grandchildren okay so Jim tell us a bit about life in Boston life in Boston what time when I was growing up mm-hmm I was I was right I had an older brother so when he would the my twin and I came home suddenly he was sort of what's going on okay he was overwhelmed that he still is to this day because he had those twin brothers and they came about little over a year after he was born uh and then he myself and my twin brother had a sister okay okay three years behind on it right after that so when in a five year period or four year period my mother had four kids okay Colin as it is and three other boys followed after that over a number of years some were not expected okay they were not planned however you define it okay but that's the way life runs today there aren't always right okay the we grew up and a originally was that the option pack house it project during World War two and it was located at Roxbury the Dudley square my father worked nights days whatever at the Boston Navy Yard Charlestown so he rode the elf from Dudley over to City Square in Charlestown working six seven days a week sometimes during the one he was a he was a sheet metal man welder the type of work so he was working a lot so my mother was fortunate in the sense that she had some people who helped her up family members and a life wonderful was a gentleman named Timmy Timmy was a janitor in the housing project where we lived for we're about a year and a half old I Jimi's job was a janitor however his wife was my mother's cousin so Timmy was a janitor there every day about two or two or three times a day because of the number of kids and then he would poke his head in the door after knocking on the door and said auntie they could do to help you so if she needed 1/4 milk or loaf of bread or something of this nature Timmy was around it through other situations he was around to do so far I tell she had a mother had a telephone but that was all she had to talk to the world those TVs or radios or radios where they ever TVs were non-existent at the time but she was busy anyway we also had some family members who lived not too far away and she make a plane okay these happen to be fortunately ladies and these ladies were my cousins and there were quite a bit older than me and they would spend a lot of time I helping their uncle's kids okay taking care of these things so it wasn't as if my mother was high and dry would watch the kids people were around to help her oh she had some aunts and Roslindale not too far down the road who took care of things as well so the family was extended to a large degree here however you wanted to find that church with the coming of the twins home that the way that goes only one or two bedrooms the that the Saint was that we had to my particular when my mother found probably the other one was coming along who happened to be my sister we we had to move to South Boston to another project on Carson Beach was the a colony housing project my father had took a little longer for him on the under T to get to work cars were rationed during World War two so he he had to take the MBTA there were no very few people had cars gasoline it was rationed car didn't like so it took him a little bit longer so he wasn't home as often or as long however you define the other was a straight trail I didn't from Dudley two minutes away from the house all the way to Charlestown this way she had to make a couple of changes in the tea so that went around the we stayed in this project and until child of the seven came along okay and a child under seven died the money was was was was available somehow or whatever to move on to a house just over the line at da Chester I in st. Mary's Parish on Buttonwood Street the family resided there for many years thereafter but by the time we got there the older members of the family I had three older boys weren't in residents and DA Chester from what the four years before they did Uncle Sam dirty earth they moved on to other places so I get married so the family move late from the projects into the other facility definitely I'm the house now him where did you go to school I started off just like she had mentioned I was in kindergarten I was the kindergarten student at the Michael J Perkins school however I developed a problem with a right hip a situation where the joint was wearing away okay it is a term called Lake le GG after doctor but was not one G it's to geez that's a deductr I get nailed for using two g's and and a composition I had to write in school and I get my Chris laughs to do it under sense but I had to explain the situation to the teacher but it was to G's and this was a situation which was somewhat of an epidemic because around me at Mass Hospital School where they set me for the neck three and a half years there were people from sub-boss and people from Charlestown people from from Brookline such similar situations and he's Boston like every section of the City of Greater Boston seem to have one or two of us I don't know how it was developed but it was a degeneration the hip at which time they put a brace on us where our right our left whatever would be when the hip was I would be in a brace where you couldn't put the shoe on the ground per se and you had a big block on the other shoe we went to school classes are only about 10 or 12 students the whole K to 12 situation and there were people at all grade levels there were probably about two off kids per grade that was it so there was a it was like the over one room schoolhouse expanded a bit okay because we all had out that one teacher in 12 students ruff ruffman's per grade I was there for three and a half years the the we had for physical therapy and other things there and I things got better after a while I mean they were that they knew it would run its course today they operate they're more aggressive with the thing and they take care of that so you're not late up as long okay we were we were not lacking for too many things out there the the doctor who handled this thing across the east of hottest Massachusetts a frac for them for the state his last name was Bradford he was a specialist at lake Cathie's and it's specialist and his probably just at that point in time happened to be the governor of Massachusetts and this was a state-funded institution so we didn't lack for too many things like that there I mean we had no problem with snow removal we had was on a farm and there was like most state hospitals at that time these farms had to be self-sufficient for food and other things of this nature so we had pigs cows chickens we had horses you name it they were there and you'd go around the farm there and see all the animals and alike okay either hit fields where they had can't grow and asparagus I you had you had rhubarb and we would sneak over the fields and cut the robotic some of that we were supposed to it was nothing to be done but was we did it anyway but it was an interesting experience and one of the gauges which you knew how long you've been there because you could see new cars every year with the growth rotate the fleet not necessarily brand new ones but rotate if Li you can look at the latest car that came in oesn't the latest Chevy they didn't have a lot of it but you know where it was so you know how long after while you were there okay if you had seen somebody cuz bred new cars from let's say in my case that says it was a 48 49 50 51 so you can see the new Chevrolet's that will coming in teenagers at that time there were only so many cars we don't have what we have today but she could gauge how long you were there at the facility we don't looking at a wall calendar the they had religious services there were provided and that's the story to itself because we're affiliated that the Catholic Church from which is my religion I was handled by st. John's Church II can and the nuns would come out and give us religious instruction their first communion etc etc and if the world can be very small because my only sister my favorite sister she was reside in New Hampshire and she was having a chitchat with one of the nuns up here at this time this is years and he has later okay my sister at that time when I was there she would have been two years younger than me so but that the nun there remembered being my CCD teacher at that time in Mass Hospital school I can now show show how small the world is this is up and Kingston New Hampshire where she met this this not so beautiful doll what can go on at a certain point I was faced back which when they was taking care of I face back into the the city of Boston I went back to the project with with my brothers and sister when I to school with my brothers and sisters I checked it the 4th grade I had left school in Boston at the start of the kindergarten so I was out for a couple of years obviously and somebody said I what did you had what kind of transcription have I says well at the very top of that it read comic of Massachusetts Bureau of institutional schools and it started with that and and I and somebody made the comment to me once when I said that situation you know you would never be accepted into which out of school today okay with that Bureau of institutional schools because they didn't really know anything about we had been that they would fear for the worst okay that you were somebody that couldn't have a lot of mental health issues put it that way so it was an interested take and it didn't originate with me as the several people of comic that I know you wouldn't ever get know what you out of school today we're not talking private schools that were just talking charter schools private schools if you had the money you get there anyway okay so you get the cash okay so Jim you're back in Boston Public Schools the parochial schools parochial schools pardon me so during this period which is now the 1950s were you made aware of events happening overseas Korea Vietnam we were we I written I would be me right going back to Korea the lady who was the house mistress in her at Social Work attack at mass hospital school and the Louisville I was at for say for a second third fourth grade her son was in Korea okay her name was mrs. Leno her husband's name was Sal their child was was in fighting somewhere during the Korean War their only child I believe okay so mrs. Leno and her husband both were handicapped in the sense that they had crutches on to go around and like but that their side obviously the offspring was good he was he was drafted well however you look at it for Korea okay and he was in the career what so we would hear it periodically now I'm coming out of this facility and as I said at the beginning of the fourth grade so everything is up to speed from that point on I'm back in the real world out there however you want to define it I'm back with my brothers and sisters now I wasn't there all that I was there but they would come down every week and visit father would take us out to get ice cream but something of this nature the kids would run around the farm okay so it was there I mean his the ladies would say the door would open out of a Model A Ford Model A Ford maroon color and out just the two doors out would come about five kids okay every so often they'd be one more kid added to the list okay so this is how the people know who we were okay so it if my mother or father couldn't make it a weekend up to take me out for an hour to go somewhere in the area of blue hills or somewhere if they didn't make it why aren't I over and dot the denim would be over to see me well and she would do the same and I had an article in Rose Adele who would do the same if she wasn't available leader so that the extended family clearly it was available for that situation so I was not a lot it's important because to put the vast majority of these kids that didn't see their family what did two or three times a year of that so it was it was a difficult situation for many of them my mother was there every week so Jim let's get you back into Boston parochial schools it's 1950s and I'm just kind of curious when did you see a television for the first time I saw a television for the I saw a television I probably did that they may have had them at mass hospitals go OK they may have been wanted to around I think they're a couple but did they're in the group wrong rec room there i but when did the TV was but was there in school it's at said agustín's okay i we would be watching Howdy Doody say we would be watching dick Clarke type of program on music okay variety of things and it was this it was a big box and this is where they we gathered after school as long as we had that our homework okay how much Kathy had it been done before that do you remember watching anything with John F Kennedy like the inauguration I I watched the JFK in our Asian JFK comes in as a important point down the road that probably isn't listed too many places I was a student at Boston State College freshman year but John F Kennedy was assassinated now when I talked and they later on became a was the history major of the time but I it was it hit us hard okay very hot of course because he was a Bostonian or well liked posture I and the scene here which hit us hard was it later on when the draft came into play my draft notice was in my hand mass hospital school or otherwise and my twin brother he and I were both had dropped out as history report to duty now we spent some time looking to get into the schools of Boston as tenured teachers before our appointed teachers before we went on active duty he would the Navy with it the marine be with the Marine Corps now I and we managed to get under the wire there we were appointed prior to that but it's strange because years later you would talk to these teachers males of course because in a draft fact you'd find that these guys gave the same draft board and dot justice up watch that you had but on the Kennedy they were not drafted from the schools of Boston as teachers Kennedy did not have a draft but LBJ going to to the White House is these guys who hold in the meat it would be probably four or five years old me I tell you no draft didn't chase teachers as long as we were in the schools teaching these had phys ed teachers variety and history teachers in other words that the draft didn't hit the Boston school system per se until Kennedy was gone it's a physique and this is untold by people this was a national situation LBJ got rid of the whole thing and so teachers were I hope I did a draft so Jim a you being a history major what do you remember being told about the Russians the Cold War right now right before you were drafted we've gone back a bit we had a we had had drills in case there was a there's a nuclear attack that this was back to elementary school so all along you would have these drills in elementary they would they primarily came to a halt I wove only hit the college maybe we hit the high school situation so after I switched over to the public schools and the ninth grade we no longer had that factor it wasn't there but before he had a heavy drills and that's the way it went okay I remember the signs up there the signs up they were colored yeah like a like a pie pie shape so I went yellow it and black okay that the text would be yellow and the background will reflect okay remember these signs are all over the place fallout shelters not the fallout shelters and things of this nature it by the time I was in high school they said to have faded out or were fading out fast so it didn't affect us in college per se so just to kind of get our bearings here when did you graduate from high school I graduated from high school and 1962 and you went to Boston State right and you graduated in 1966 I graduated 1966 alright so and you were appointed a teacher I was appointed teacher correct and when was that I was appointed a teacher I was class of 66 I was the point that a teacher in this on December 1st of 1966 haven't been a a provisional teacher in the Boston schools since September of 66 and when were you drafted I was drafted I had a draft nose like my twin I had a draft notice probably around March or April of 66 well before graduation that Quantic graduation I was going to have a new post office box all right Jim when did you start your career in the military namely the Marine Corps okay I started my career in the Marine Corps and it's in the center ester because when I opened my mouth out there they know where I'm from okay I'm from Boston I packed my car in Harvard Yard now I checked into dirty leaving the Grover Cleveland school as that is a teacher at the time Grover Cleveland it was it feels Carter as I was filling that supposed to be a sight a history teacher but I was filling on because the guy hadn't left yet but they had an English opening so I filled in as an English teacher for six six weeks however by the middle of January of 67 I'm down in Quantico Virginia along the Potomac River the temperature is as cold as it is in Boston down there it's wet and snow I see in LA and I'm out at front with 200 other young guys I in uniform at 5:00 in the morning the Sun was starting to come up a bit and the drill instructor of these 200 guys the head drill instructor says I'm looking for this guy from Boston I want to hear him talk I want to hear him talk about as Karen haven't yet so of the 200 people later with a lottery number that brought me out front for whatever reason that I had to explain my pack in my car in Harvard yet now the company could be the officer was a guy who was a farmer running back from arbor and university okay he lost an eye in Vietnam as a lieutenant okay and they were ready to move him out for medical reasons however he managed to work us and he lost a lot of his people physically me included because he would have us run up the logs of God on the logs on ice and everything else a lot of broken I arms legs here and there at cetera I banged up a knee okay I was pulled out of the organization at the time put into a casualty platoon until this knee handled itself left knee I with physical therapy and other things I could get down to the to the stables at Quantico and I could shovel it the stuff with the horses however the typical PFC on-base was not that was cruel and unusual punishment for him he was not allowed to do that type of work okay the guy in the brig it was not allowed to come out of the brig and work the stables however people like me were assigned to that type of duty okay we didn't have the so-called rights that everybody else had okay so we would there and that what it was getting called it I was I find as the job as the chaplains assistant my cousin had done this day : but I didn't last too long because I couldn't type so I was shuffled out of there very quickly heading back to the stables Allah says so what we work from there but at the later run I met the guy who was the lieutenant with the bad eye running back from our burn University later on I met him at Twentynine Palms California at this time he had two stars okay so he did okay he had he had a godfather to looking after him making sure things went well not because with desire a long one I usually as an officer one iris deference er you got you basically but he had some Godfather's of father somewhere because he just didn't finish his three-year - he went on to 27 yes 30 whatever so sudden some people know a higher guard than others who knows so Jim I just wanted to step back a little bit did you choose the Marines or the Marines choose you that's a very good question I I chose the Marine Corps I had I had the draft the draft had made was no question I was told by my sister that my mother wasn't too happy but she had paperwork that was showed that my knee was going to get my leg parenthese could get me out of the situation but but my sister told it oh no no no he's not gonna like that if he hears that because he's it's gonna hang as forever in other words I'd be like George Bush there with my what was my physical from that the society doctor who worked in an office all by George his father George Bush's father would meet we're talking today's news is where we're coming from here so I wasn't got to take that way out okay so now you're in the Marine Corps you're down in Virginia you're shoveling what comes out of the horses right and and let as Mandy got better and that they put me into the program again the OCS program I asked the OCS program I was in pretty good shape because during the days I had a friend who had an old VW Beetle he was a a life insurance guy out of Cincinnati Ohio and he and I would go to the pool every day up and about 10 15 miles away and we stayed in shape by doing exercises for him elapsed of the pool and alike so that when the time came that summer for me to go running up and down logs and climbing things I was in pretty good condition I had that but it's a question of being at the right place the right time because as I said he needed somebody to talk there and he and he in and I need a semi to give you a lift and he were both went up there every three five or six days a week so you so when did you get out of the OCS program I could I'll see you at the OCS program I got out in at August of 67 and you received a commission I received a commission second lieutenant a second lieutenant brown bar okay June tell us what happened next okay next evolution is that the I went there and I received my commission in the summer and I was just got basic infantry school as a look second lieutenant in September so I was had another hit a week or two off to go up to Boston and the visit wife made me not my wife made my family and the whole thing then they came back and I was at 24 6 26 weeks I was down in Quantico Virginia a second as a second lieutenant in the infantry school and I had graduated and they sent me from there they were going to send me to communication school and somebody said why that's just I didn't know at the time but my GCT was very high up there very very nice where a court is not known for high GC teas okay this is not what people necessarily and Rico want to hear but it's we get in there okay but they're known for physical fitness factors okay supposedly but they're a lot on the other hand - there's a brigadier general or a three-star general I know today or I was in school with all those years he's a lawyer today he also had a high GCT he was a common officer too so I mean this is the way it is but the attrition rate for communication officers in AmeriCorps is the highest of all of all of them after three years they don't stay around they find other activities outside that before we continue on with that it couldn't help but notice that you were in Boston the summer of 67 the the impossible dream year where did your family follow the Red Sox 67 mm-hmm 66 6 67 67 would have been early on in June my twin brother get married in 67 I was in Boston for that okay okay and I was to start the 10-week OCS program at that point mm-hmm now her father was getting married in August way back at the end of the summer I was nowhere to be seen I was on duty at Quantico Virginia okay but however you're bringing out a very good point I have a younger brother Oh Joe is his name for the record Joe had some money in his hand I had some money in my hand I had a little break time between Statten after being commissioned as a second lieutenant okay in OCS and going to infantry school and I took off a place called Montreal so I I was not this is the summer that ya referred to in 67 yeah so i'm joe and i are exposed 67 in montreal oh wow so however it was not a happy occasion for certain people because my future sister-in-law was was ticked because I did make the wedding rehearsal for my brother okay who you met before yeah okay so he wasn't too happy cuz Joe and I are in Montreal the same time is the wedding rehearsal was going on but wait Joe when I showed that but did what we had to do for the wedding and that was okay and as I said then at that point I'm being I'm headed for other schools but so we move on with that so the older brother I was not around I wasn't in the program for that his he get married in August I was back in - no see yes for this finish it up the son okay so when did you get out of Infantry School in Quantico I got out of infantry School in Quantico that would have been Infantry School in Quantico I would have gotten out probably April April of 68 68 and what happened next what happened then at that point I could be out for a month or two but at that point I did they only had they let the line was cut at that at em 4.com school which was on post on base at Quantico so some seven of us had to wait for the next class to convene it in my case I was the only bachelor of the seven okay of the seventh and they sent me down to be the training officer for the for the four Marines who were gods at the Brig who were MPs and who worked the Rangers rifle range system range range control people like that I was a training officer it was an interesting experience because I worked for a Mustang captain a must angus farmer listed captain and he says he says lieutenant you're here for the duration okay however you're you're fortunate because what you're gonna be doing is you're gonna be following First Sergeant Joe Black Joe Black is the first size in here you're gonna follow him until we assign you somewhere else okay well first side ginger black was a great guy Joe black leader rod became the number one side your major in the Marine Corps so this Mustang the clearly knew his his the guy who was just for a sergeant was going up the pole okay and he did so Joe black taught me a lot okay now what was happening then and then they later on they sent me over to comms company when they realized that I should be - over there - getting ready to do what the Marine Corps was gonna pay me to do so while at Camp Company had there was an interest in American history that happened in Washington not Washington DC it happened outside of long way from Washington where a preacher from from the salt came Martin Luther King gets assassinated now I was at the time where I was young second lieutenant I was waiting to go to Khan school I worked for it captain by name of hawa h o wo he was a chinese-american okay who grew up and what was when he grew up was was Chinatown of Washington DC surprisingly yes there was a Chinatown of Washington DC way way back okay every place has its Chinatown if you look at it well John how and I learned a lot from John how over the I met him later right quite a few times but in his case he said he said we're gonna cut this thing small we were stationed in Anacostia which is the old Air Force Station across the river we were ready for riot control duty we had a shop guy who's a Mustang lieutenant colonel named and booney he was a good friend of of a fake the Commandant than a marine class the way things go it was a guy named green was the Commandant of the Marine Corps and this guy he had said you know looked at a liquid he had a conference I was not at the conference he says we're not going to comment what the ar-15s we're gonna use the old m14 so the rifle of somebody says why I said the other was confrontational okay it's shot a little bit at the end of it that's not good for riot control but this is a hill boy out of Vermont for the record I didn't say West Virginia Vermont but he was down to earth and he said we're gonna use that and that way to local people if there's a problem it's as if there's a problem we're going to use the but the wooden stock so they got to see the wooden stock but at the end they're not going to see the muzzle so we're not looking to have a blowout here we're looking for just keeping people in line if they step out we're not looking for a conflict litigation here then he was absolutely right because once we hit the streets and there were a couple of hundred of us okay once we hit the streets doing a variety of things they you can see the people settled out but it wasn't the only reason that the people settle down because in a Washington Post The New York Times the bars think love all the big newspapers had all of the pictures the pictures all of the rifles that this guy James Earl Ray had that they took out of his room it's a hotel motel room whoever it was okay and they're all there and as I was being told by the southern guys Marines and cetera okay people outside waving the bullets that were pulled out of the body have Martin Luther King don't match the guns of any of these people that have any of these pictures that were the newspapers that they had a TV also okay other words it's a thirty thirty caliber rifle shot bullet well there were no thirty caliber rifles in the collection that we saw on television so then of course just like later on with with the JFK thing record people began to get suspicious over time people know the government was trying to snow them buried so they they backed off in other words they weren't going to get caught in mob actions so they they backed out so we we didn't have any confrontations of any note Washington because the people knew the game that this wasn't the guy who did it okay they were mad at Uncle Sam for not bringing the right guy in but we're not gonna get into involvement here would and just to protect this guy here because down the road hopefully he would be protected but the fact there is that the once we landed in Washington less than 24 hours after the assassination people already know because they had seen the pictures so we had no difficulties there were also the hometown boys because we're coming from Quantico just 30 miles south where a lot of these guys were in Washington DC every night they came back from Vietnam with a lot of money in their pocket okay and they get shot up there and the agent arms was let was it was yet to come of course but they get shot up they had money to get cars and young ladies in the Washington DC metropolitan area like these cars so they we do a lot so a lot of this in fact a lot of the ladies there would come up to us and provide coffee and doughnuts and things of this nature because their boyfriend was one of us okay however you looked at it okay so you did if it was it was a good it was a very good situation associate okay we had no arrest we had no problems but yet we never fight it around at anybody in Washington now that may have happened a lot of places but it didn't happen with us in Washington DC and the marine corps had had the Congress at the White House it had the Supreme Court build it it had vote the Library of Congress also and the army basically had the things offer elevate that they had the muck that what the Lincoln Memorial they had the Pentagon they had places foggy bottom's with a department of that the diplomats hang out in places of this nature so the Marine Corps basically had the hill area that we had no difficulties at all so that we had nothing to journalists could have a good time when you write a good start because it was just they walked we walk we talk they talk back and forth so it was it was continual whew so tell us what happened after that okay after that they sent me to us they sent me to school that summer okay comm school I have to after doing that from a point a they took my two youngest brothers from Boston after a little time and ironed her up there I drove them back put him on her and we we went around Washington DC and I drove back I drove them back to Boston and they had got the Fort McHenry they had gone to to Valley Forge say god to a lot of places where they had never been before this is these are my brothers Daniel and and Jericho okay so we get all right and that's how it was it wasn't a heavy stuff I feel like I was getting paid to so it wasn't hard to do of course in June of 68 was the assassination of Robert F Kennedy what do you remember about that I I don't remember too much about Robert Kennedy but the I could read you the after details that have as a historian have gone over this thing here Robert Kennedy took over from the brother LBJ was in the White House Robert in Alba Jade didn't get mixed too well my early Robert Kennedy was a Kennedy he liked the crowd he liked to rub shoulders he liked to shake hands to do things in a statue he had a lot of kids okay so he people didn't bothered Bobby Kennedy Ethel was the same way from but you're looking at well he had just beaten in California he had just knocked off LBJ chances of getting to the White House that there was a as a famous television journalist not journalist promoter of such that was his manager and he insisted on taking Bob Kennedy into the kitchen and out the back door somewhere because the crowds are too big out front well Bobby Kennedy resisted this because the Kennedys always liked the crowd they always liked the the an audience this is the way they did things okay I and they're entitled and he he was really didn't want to go there because of I want to meet the people these are the people who just gave me election victory in California so he wanted to shake hands rub shoulders however you want to look at uh so he goes into the kitchen there's a guy behind him I know you're never met before there's we looking at a guy who kind of fuzzy looking okay and this guy who was fuzzy looking ahead of him as the people the media said was but it was kind of office his name sirhan sirhan and he had a like he had a hard time standing up well when the when the things came down the line in the autopsy if it was know it to have been done the right way would have shown dit Bob Kennedy had two or three shots from a 22 pistol in the back of his neck Sirhan Sirhan as how does 80 degrees out front so right from the get-go the government has been hiding this situation Pfeffer yawns of years isn't a conspiracy the answer was yes I mean that the however that the official books don't say that but that's the way it is because the people know and that the gun francis that was used came out of the police locker because the lands and grooves like we discussed earlier of that those 22 caliber shots matched the Lancer grooves of a pistol 22 pistol which was in a LA Police Department's official Locker so somehow unless somebody open up the lock it took the pistol put a couple of rounds into it did a job on the back of his head and put it back somewhere who knows where so I mean it was a people picked that one up very quickly and today to this day Sirhan Sirhan is still in jail and members of the Kennedy family have been fighting to get him up that's so you we have to look at it not like okay Jim let's go back to communication school what were you being trained at while you were in communication school I was being trained in communication school to be when you sent a bunch of troops out to do anything even if to just have run the vehicle okay you had to have a radio fun you had the radio for them in places you had they had telephones for you had to have classified material which you could use to encode into telephones and to radios and like and this is where I was being trained what types of antennas you had to put it on certain aircraft you had to put these things on certain other places you had a mobile cheeps where you had higher powered radios on etc you had HF jeeps where you would shoot for the moon in a sense okay that would be what we in Vietnam we had HF Jeeps that had ham radio ability to talk to the west coast so we had a line of guys every night at these places talking to mother at the west coast when somebody else would catch them in to the East Coast okay so to keep morale up it was there's no charge of course for this so did everybody what would do this but I'm a guy who was the guy with the officer in charge of all of this lying in a Rowlett now later on during a WOD that we had a a ship called in New Jersey New Jersey would would shoot bullets our ammunition rounds of bombs whatever you want to call is because of bugs right the beetle and you see these things at night going across the sky and banging it to some place of bunker 20 miles 30 miles inland it was my job to liaison with from the Marine Corps on the land somewhere with enable people I didn't direct them but I had Navy people who did the direction it was my job to lay in the night cable because we're talking about the ship out there so to make sure we could communicate with it that was my position so you went to communication school summer 68 tell us what happened once you got out of there once once I get out of there I had some leave and I was signed then I was I got leave and that they did they assign me back they gave me a flight ticket to go to Vietnam I got an airplane in LA not near force base which is just outside the city about 40 miles outside I I don't know if it's still an air force base today but we get on the plane we landed in Hawaii they let us get off the plane in Hawaii we could go around the thing to get something to drink or eat but for every door there were 15 and peas that wouldn't let us go out the door okay so we're allowed to get something to drink and we're allowed to use of the men's room there were no ladies men's room and then we had to get back on that the thing so would that they would take it for crisis to make sure that we didn't stay in the big islands of the little islands so we get back on the plane they sent us into a Okinawa we spent a few days in Oakland I would get refitted for equipment and elect them they sent me down on a plane with a bunch of other guys into de Nang airbase and science relevant Marines which was the artillery organization for first Marine Division I was the single officer for the Nathan the Army's jargon for that I was assigned my boss I was a second lieutenant my boss at 311 and 11th Marines I'm sorry they've got Marines was a major who I met later on over the years nice guy all right when you were what was the equipment that they were assigning you when you were going to Vietnam uniform we had we had uniforms we had camouflage uniforms in a jungle boots we hit the helmets with the camouflage stuff we we had some special clothing whatever we have we all had great t-shirts not white t-shirts and things of this nature here the the changes are quite a change the socks and like jungle books like I said we got our shots that were given to us and open our the last shots before we get over there and what in my job I was assigned to 11th Marines which is the artillery for the 1st division I was decided as as the assistant cob officer to a major later on he became a colonel in America okay and in that situation I he assigned me additional duties for instance he was in charge of the yoke Officers Club which was Agee talked about size of here in the other room there were slot machines there and my job on Sunday afternoons was to clean the slot machines up okay and I would yeah and I had to count the money out but all that and and I would ask the boss this is Maj what are we gonna do we're gonna change not Missouri where you can adjust the wheels where you can have more oranges and apples and bananas coming across what mo what does he says no all right right now okay so we're doing that so but think you could adjust it to have more wets very quickly yeah all done by here no computers at this time okay but there was a four wheels with apples and cetera we know the drill and then they went down to the staff NCO club which was the east sixes and above and did the same that everybody else has was taking a snooze on a Sunday afternoon but make how's the gang I was the only second let's had it in and the regimental headquarters I was the the daily job officer however you look at it now that translated to the next ever day edition somebody had to do the security platoon at night so sometimes they'll be at the bar there making sure things throw down we waited for this young just yeah I can read the mean screw of the show up and she would take care of the virus smile at the guys and get big tips that they were right okay she did okay for herself wrote nicely and I we when she got there I was loose at that part so I was making the drinks I was the bartender okay I tell she came in and I had to make sure that the colonel got get the right yet right firm vote for Jed for his because he get it he had something special to drink okay so you know make sure that was they're ready that done the he'll decide your major had a similar situation which I was told but down there I only counted the I only counted they things up slot machines and work slots NATO this is for the e6 or sevens eights of nights okay so I had to do both of these on a Sunday afternoon I can't the money in LA then I would get tapped in the shoulder now one night I get promoted the first lieutenant I had to put some money on the bar okay as this is the usual ceremony goes but the major says by the way you can't drink to that because they're going over the wall okay so that night I was like three out of four nights at that time I was going through the walk to the wire with 3040 guys and would set up for trouble tones and let the security make sure the NVA we're coming to visit us at night so we had to do this thing here did we get shot at the answer is yes do we get anybody hurt the answer was no but I they sent me a few times up to a place called high bandpass which is way above the mountains to got a unit up there for a couple of days and I had probably 35 40 guys with me not a full platoon but but he had a lot of stuff but we we also had the direct line into the into the division a Tillery place if we had needed to be protected very quickly directly had to call him and I'm not for eighth inch shots to be led in front of us not little little things uh in at the at the same time there my friend next door from back when on from bought from from school for many years Marine Corps family had been to Holy Cross and whatever but and and event he had the his unit wasn't the artillery people he had the division band he had the comp company he had the the Baker's there who had to be set back at a certain time to make things for the generals rest a bit things of this nature here today he had those guys so weird the adjacent units that I get after I've made second lieutenant they move me out but they kept him there in about three or four weeks after I left he still left the NVA were all over the place and they had to bring in what was called Puff the Magic Dragon which was a big c-130 aircraft which was load of machine guns and everything else at other ordnance and that went over that hill with the NVA where of just annihilate a Lama my friend that night picked up a Silver Star okay so in other words there was activity around where I was clearly but I was out of there at the time I was back to them I was heading for the lyosha Buddha I was I was assigned to duty as the signal officer comm officer 3rd battalion 11th Marines at support of seven marine infantry regiment it was also the headquarter CEO both billets were by-the-book to be assigned as a captain so I was do it to Captain Bill as as a two months in grade it's the first attack so I was a busy bee you were indeed I was I had a lot of troops and I didn't get along too well with the colonel was a judge but but that was neither here nor there right he he wanted painted rocks and things of this nature I wouldn't have time for this sort of stuff but the the other drill there is that I went up to a place called RC but not RC means mouth or whatever overlooking all of the border they had been a French resort my helicopter went over the place walked around the Murray Court had a big radio transmission site there ii think so the pool was no longer a pool that was was filled it basically with dirt I liked but it was a resort for the French when they had this place decades before but in any event that did I did I I was as I said the commander I I met a guy who was a sniper or scout sniper okay he he wrote a book later on and he gave me a copy of it he had a hundred and twenty firm can confirm kilts himself he had done tooth to us he had 120 some say more than happens he just a Tyler 20 he was able to show those he came to work for me one day when his boss colonel up above did not like snipers okay the guy who came in as the regimental commander the 7th Marines do not like the use of scout snipers because he didn't think that was a way of warfare okay now everybody who got that position before him had had had pulled a lot of strings because and verbally if things what reasonably well these Colonels would make a brigadier general of themselves very shortly thereafter so it was a highly sought after words why they ever let somebody who didn't like snipers I don't know but the regimental sergeant major was himself a farmer sniper and he right away didn't cotton to this guy right away because he had better sniper himself so think is it this guy he was a he was a it was an e6 at the time his name was Hathcock he came out of North Carolina he met his wife at a bank in North Carolina and she didn't know what he did in the Marine Corps she didn't know he was a scout sniper until she saw one of the local North Carolina newspapers a story about what her husband had was doing or he did for a living so she thought he was doing something out of the being a sniper okay so that still stayed married put it that way but right and any in any event Hathcock I put him up in the towers which were made from telephone poles Florida and I had control it I was where we could see for distances because we got style icicles which you could use at night to look for things and I put him up at at I was in might sex security reason region of the the of the big potential of the hill there so he was out of the range of the colonel at 7th Marines who didn't like snipers really all he wanted him to bread the trash and do other things okay so this was his game so in any event I had to keep this from my boss because my boss was the artillery officer for this colonel okay so we didn't want him to know too much about what we're doing okay however mimei who I worked was the the guy who ran the guns 474 311 he knew he had to know so we worked it out with him so that when the three of them on and they would hear some some shots being shot from inside the security area to the outside he know who where why and where it was coming from one of the towers what a stylized scope digging somebody who was just ready to put them all around and to a mortarman throw it out to and break up our sleep at night and tell us so this is how you had to do the work you had to get along with people you had to get a lot with people do these days but the current the kernel was not good to me but the paperwork when I left so I had to have help down the road with that and how long were you in this particular duty station I was in this duty station I was there probably for at country foot for thirteen months so I was there probably for ten because we moved a month before I left to another place about 30 miles salt when they were starting to pull on a bit of out of Vietnam and we had the same problems if it was an army facility for many years in the army had gone by helicopter from point A to point B by helicopter well we had guys on the ground we had a walk though that the place is a lot of minds so we got to pick up the things of this day so it was dangerous duty not necessarily for me because I was on the ground dollars on their headquarters to somewhere her agent things but it was was not a safe place to be I managed to get out of country twice okay the first time I got out of country was they sent me they had my brother had granted the same type of school somewhere else we had to learn to do off live encryption other words you would get a message and you would put it into a thing with mixing the wheels around certain ways set them at certain things would come out to decode thank offline encryption think that they sent me to a place called Yakuza could Japan I was up there for 10 days it wasn't hard to take was cold I was cold but I was able to what ice skates on I go skate that Lake gallon doctor for a while okay no hockey just skated so is a change of pace for a while and I was in I was able to go to Tokyo every night so it wasn't hard to take because bienick classified school he couldn't take anything home with you so it was there's no homework he could do because you weren't allowed did they get stuff out of the school you know everything was locked up at night and you didn't see it so it was it was good that you guys so he took the bullet train and these other trains around Japan for about 10 days then they had to go back to work then I would later on they sent me to to Australia for her which was a good deal to City I was I had paperwork and my money converted to go to a place called Thailand okay however the colonel tap in the shoulder the XO made you sit no no we're going out to the woods for a couple of days okay you're not going to any get put to any place to go to Thailand you're gonna have to throw your money back in again so he squatted us so he it was I almost made it to Thailand - it was very close money was converted everything else because of Vietnam is you probably get him your deal of a special script they did not want the locals to get da key greenback dollars is what they didn't want because that would best their economy that was their excuse all right so you said you said earlier that you were in country for about 13 months which means that you would have been in Vietnam until 1970 but that bothered all right so tell I was a little before that a little before that okay I got out of I came off of duty in September 1970 mm-hmm now before that I was in a better training well the other side right so tell us about that I wrote letters to the guy who was in charge of assigning people like me to this he received three letters well I had written five minutes to make sure that you got the letters I wrote actually because I got three every so that's that's fine but I'm back in the United States I'm a bachelor okay I'm there's nothing for activity around North Carolina for a Yankee like me from bastard because once we open up our miles the ladies move on okay nice knowing you so it any event if the if you know if you're on active duty will be a different story okay if you got to be around for 20-30 years there'd be a different game but they know you're in and out of town so what I was on the COS on the Mediterranean therefore we booked with the RO to Spain on the ship's ship this year we had five ships I was in charge of the communication for the Marine Corps for all five ships going back and forth from ship to ship with telecom and things of this nature computers hadn't quite committed this time but the group a technical basic for the group was a case American embassy was attacked that we were there to reinforce the embassy you could send the Marine Corps and because the embassy guard was basically Marines beforehand so that that stopped a lot of international problems there okay yeah if you set the army and that's a different game so I was assigned that duty and they sent me to over there in the ships and we did okay I've met some nice people over there as a bachelor still at the time for the record even though my wife was okay but the that the drill here is that we we did okay we went to Piraeus Greece with the grease our not Africa or a row to Spain as I said we're it out trip up to Munich okay we're there we're going to Genoa Munich but we got to Munich by going to pulled it the Genoa Italy caught on a train that went with the Brenner pass it but you know that's route okay I spent the weekend and if you had a runaround we did okay then we get back to the ship where you had to go to the next port but we're always ready if that something happened to quickly get out to the back to the ship that is why we're Munich we we had helicopters located not just on the road after the Air Force place to give us a quick lift then ships it back out of country it wasn't as if we went to some ski slope but this is we have a couple days that was not the drill but I did that had a good time came back and some helps the right over there was it's right below the ships are bumpy but I said I'd get something on the right coming back I got to know the dentist okay I he needed some things done friends first dental practice before he became a full dentist and one of the things I hate it was in either to do some more wisdom teeth so my way coming back on the on the ship for crossing the Atlantic from Spain to dr. Caroline everybody say seven or eight days I get four wisdom teeth pulled okay so I I said that's m'as going nowhere on the ship was it just sit there it couldn't concentrate read books so yeah I said I'll do it so we went with that process all right you're back in the United States minus four wisdom teeth were you stole the first lieutenant I was still a first lieutenant all right and what happened after you hit the shore after I hit the shower back there the I was there for shot time and dedicate I'm was up would have been August of 70 is a symphony I checked out our mate August of 70 and I went back to Boston September of 70 I met the little red schoolhouse overlooking Logan Airport he's Boston High School a sign there is a history teacher and I hadn't been at the City of Boston too many times over he had there are other than visit according to the family it was a different world must have been from when I left for over 340 attacker things have changed dramatically so I I was a history teacher there at this point I was attending teacher so it wasn't much they could do unless I did something right because they I hadn't been around but meanwhile that they had to give me Pasco so I was I stepped forward of the salary lanes and moving up per se it makes the matter I had a car at an MGB Brando off the boat prodded for overseas delivery as a bachelor I couldn't drive at the school how government because I East Boston high if I looked at the parking lot somebody would do it put put a knife in my wheels wire wheels soft roof and all I can so I got a Beatle I had to drive back and forth to school of Volkswagen at one mornin I was I went out to do and I obviously had some kid off because I came back and and the three of the floor wheels had a knife through them after school that he's too high up on the hill so it's a good thing it wasn't the MGP would have it totaled they would have cut the roof and down hold on to the seats and everything else well I I ain't got some kids sub sub point that day whatever so that's the way it is how long we do to teach at East Boston I taught in East Boston for about three or four years as a history teacher so you were there when desegregation took place I was there when segregation came to time Wow tell us what that was like it easy it was not a problem because what the the local folks what they agree with them I disagree that the day they would enter the title and leave a car and have been a little rushed out of the tunnel leave the car turn the engine off take the keys jump the car just ahead of it inquire right out the tunnel now this is Russia how are you going to get that that car with our tea is out of the tunnel they did that a few days and people realized we got to keep East Boston out of the bus and planned for a while okay because this has got this could go this could happen anytime that it was the locals control that that situation at the time now I don't think at that time he had the other tunnel either thick we only had one I only had one time so the other was being constructed so I so the bus and would eventually get to East Boston he got there several ways the projects began he could see more of our a brown or black in the projects there were projects needs blasted the heights the projects the Mavericks square and alike had been for years I and so it was just a matter of time before things we got to get them there in other ways now one of the ways is is that at the high school they pulled out the the co-op course which was machinist okay they pulled that off and moved it to the RC and Roxbury okay with the teachers and everybody else the thing they cleaned it out that way at the look at the schools the Trenton came out of Hyde Park I for instance that was moved out of high pot into and to uh into the Oh RC in Boston tilt so this is how they avoided a lot of these things there so if you wanted these jobs you have to go then these other schools in the city and the intercity per se so this is how they did that now I was there probably for four or five years and meantime I looked around the schools and I said that there's no way I'm going to be the head of the history department yet because I know he's in line to be the head of this department the guy named toto later on he became the headmaster the school such as is no way up the line to be defrocked and so and I saw at that point I finished my history program but BC and didn't want to go after a doctor because that's like what am I gonna do it I don't want to sit right book but but but the fact that still is I had worked in special ed after that I worked to say as a with the school at watch the state and I already had a master's in counseling of advisor state so I got a job I mean I took degree in school psychology so working with kids at high schools middle schools elementary school then my GI Bill was still there so I finished up a doctorate degree at Boston University the College of that liberal at supper there all my questions were the college of the Balazs because they already had the basic degree so I want to go to flight school but the wife said no I had money for East Coast Aerotech the races no you're not going that that's the way that's the way it goes you had mentioned this before the interview that you use the GI Bill to go to school go to college oh yeah and did you use your other any other veterans vet benefits when I the my first year in East Boston hi I met this lady who came down and told me I had a straight my act though because the kids were called from my class to her class they were telling about what they had done in my class and she said this has to be embarrassing okay but she straightened me out okay and this is this is my first year at East High now this is say it's October she's telling me this thing September so in November there was a ship that was sunk called up the Peter Stuyvesant I was a party vote on the docks they appear for okay and there was a big marine Club all there okay and I invited her to this ball and she came along okay and it wasn't this is Rhonda November early November ah lunch there he shot come to come the first of January she and I are engaged okay so things move fast in certain areas okay she was an Irish American girl out of Brighton who had gone through a manual college she had been a presentation Academy other this school before that so she's a local lady okay not from about the Caroline there anywhere else so if you traveled around the world they'd come back he'd get what's the lady next to it we got sweetest okay so who goes so in any event that we we work these things from that from that on and cab I it would come first of the January she gets a wedding right she gets an engagement ring so had in August of the following fall in August less than what this is the year to know each other they were going up the aisle and presentation church and bright so the well wrote most facile - mm-hmm okay I understand you're also a member of the Disabled American Veterans yes were you wounded or was there something else that happened decide from the hip I don't have a Purple Heart right I must let's leave it start with that point I don't have a Purple Heart I had a map in my hand a plasticized map which he used for Justin Fela fire be like a geographical map of the White Mountains type for ten thousand meters blocks she gives us write the Tillery shells okay and what happened I made that we didn't have the plastic clear plastic over there to do these things right so my favorite sister my only sister sent me some stuff over to take care of things my mother sent it so a lot of us had some clear plastic would you put on count isn't like usually it's colored but this was clear and I'm holding one of these things there and next thing or something rocket comes in and there's a hole in it but you're big and it wasn't a hole cut by a pair of scissors you cuz you could see it was the heat factor okay and it missed me by yo much okay now I'm into that's just too high bring in this and to show eventually to the the students that the at the Rogers middle school in High Park later in the day because this over the editors of is a vietnamese language cluster for vietnamese students and this was a map which everything was listed in vietnamese which they were gonna use to help these kids bridge from the vietnamese stood so I was gonna let this guy borrow this mouse Big Mac but there's a hole about this big in it okay and I'm standing there and a comprise feet of mine Eddie Donnelly I'm talking about a hyper Phil Scott originally he was a young enlisted guy in a place called career earlier on in his life he had all sort of tended the same high school I did years before I'm a Boston tech he elected this in front of a lot of people in Jimmy this comes any closer and it's this guy's an award that he says that this could have caught blank-blank like off of you okay and the people baguette two were a lot but he was very serious he was right okay so the the dice can be very hot okay ie been in helicopters it had been punched out of this guy there they shot they got that they landed in the ground one of them was head notic and Viet leave in Vietnam to go to the kept the airplane out okay that happened to the helicopter we were leaving firebase about forty miles south the Dinanath and they came down now they sent us a bigger helicopter we went from a forty six to a fifty three and before we left with the 53 we all had to go against the side because what they were doing down the center is they will put body bags on stretchers now the rest were all leaving Vietnam you could have obviously heard a pin drop there are they and there are us along the side of the pick a helicopter we made and it wasn't a word said our try to be communicated everything was there as the body bags are twelve whatever the number one two rose up middle but first of all when they lost air pressure and they milked away but meanwhile all of our weapons had but turned it you talk about gun control so we had no against so if we had landed a mile around and Charlie was right for us we had not to shoot at them that the guys in the helicopter may have but you're talking fifteen or twenty guys with the stuff they had it's not a gun to be had among us so you wonder how things can the dice can be hot it can be cold but so we around with this and where is the my daughter's have seen this map with that the big burnout they can see wasn't done what her scissors but but the guy who I learned it I never got it back he moved his room from one year from one part of the building to another and something for the map up because it's our alma oh that's the way it runs oh dear well aside from DAV did you join any other veterans organizations yes I am a past commander of the Westwood post 320 American Legion I am active at today also as a past commander I at about league basis you'll see me one night at a Legion meeting and the later on I represent that post the County meeting and Etta post 18 that's the legions factor I don't go to conferences big conferences at all okay I get other things I had to take care okay I and that regard to the lid to the DAV I they want me to run the chairs where you started fourth command v command and we'll go up I've already done this I told him at the American Legion and I don't have the time for it so I am the officer today who takes the attendance checks things up introduces the unit to the new people who commit the unit this unit has several thousands of people technically on the books and a drill we may have 40 people 50 these are all guys and maybe one or two ladies are all over 40 years of age so I am active in those types of endeavors but as I said I'm the I told them very clearly I've done the chairs of and that I assert point I have to be home and I have a young lady who I met at East Boston high school by 8 but quarter 9 has to get in bed at night and I got to put her make sure she gets into bed take care of the darks and whatever so I'm not walking at 11 12 o'clock at night I make very clear to people without getting into details I can things I have to be and Jim what metals or accommodations did you earn while you're in the Marine Corps while I was in America I have a Combat Action Ribbon from Vietnam that I was in a combat area I have no Silver Stars I have no Bronze Stars I have no medals of Honor no Navy crosses that's it now the guy who was next to me who came from Holy Cross he picked up a Silver Star two weeks after I left in the next year so that the potential clearly was there for me to have gotten something but I was nowhere to be seen that was moved out Jim before the interview I believe it was one of your either your children or grandchildren who served in Iraq I got my year my older daughter is an Iraqi veteran and what branch she was that she was in a Rhode Island as a god she joined to fly helicopters she didn't quite do that and a lot of reasons for that but her she was the communication officer for this for the unit and she were you in command to fight like heck to get these people activated for her National Guard unit activated for Iraq and he got them and they went over there and she's it seriously hurt during a racket of jacket he gave her a Bronze Star a Purple Heart in a hospital situation says I'm gonna give you the Purple Heart and the next day he come back and says no you're not gonna get it I'm gonna take it away from you and it's been litigation in a sense sense this guy has stepped on people all the way up particularly females and I'm not presenting that to three ladies as a sexist question the Providence Journal newspaper had some big stories on the sky were in the last two years but he there is there is there a woman who are being taken advantage of his in his units he's a general and he's totally ignorant and even though his wife is very active and she's on the payroll as the GS work of them and they that they're not happy and in the case here that this is this is a guy who as I told you earlier in Vietnam we had the bar his staff in SEOs in the office troupe said the beer they could get the other if they had wanted to what I'm talking we're not even talking a marijuana situation okay so they have it but but but in over Iraq it's a no-no because of the religious factions I bet every month he'd get a bottle of we shipped in for him in a bottle for the size of nature I've had liquor he's around today mm-hmm and my daughter has the case sitting in Washington DC for her purple ha written up by our veterans agent who at one time was a lady who was a colonel Edmund types in the Air Force for 20-something years her husband was a flyer okay he her concern is and her going back to duty if this belong goes up again he may get activated for dirty his flyer so this is not a good game for her so you see how they said they activated me no I'm a hundred percent I have a generous toe I give on that but the guy you met last week of the week last week was my twin brother he's my veteran see now how stressful can families be my mother was not easy to get along with when her twins were in Vietnam at the same time not easy at all okay and that there were some flashes here and there but but it was was not a good game so and I can see it when my daughter gets hurt in Iraq okay it's not directly what she can do I have a friend who has three stars as a retired Marine general he says I can't get into that I'm read networked into the board the rumors there with the thing and he says because of the budget of things going through Washington today she's I can't get in there myself for my daughter's if I had to in other words he said it's a card ballgame going down in Washington DC today so Jim before we wrap up this interview how important was it for you to serve in the military the military in my family I would say is a professional way of life or what we have full-time people my father was in the National Guard some time there in the 20s or 30s whatever he was he went to Curtis Hall which is the Minister for building in Jamaica Plain big build in there in Jamaica Plain there I don't build and a guy named Paul Dudley white very prominent doctor to be checked him over and says he can't sir he's the bachelor at the time okay you can't surf because you have cardiology problems you have problems at your felts he later on stay with white for many many tickets and he got first-class treatment at MGH when he had to he passed away on a yacht in the AU wire years later and because he wasn't strong enough to handle the valve situation Paul Dudley white water a nice letter to the Boston pilot newspaper on my father so it's out there so it's a situation Dudley white was the person who was one of the guys what you eat and everything else exercise and whatever his daughter was his secretary his nurse is his jack-of-all-trades okay she would roll into his house which was with that the footbridge from the Esplanade lands and Beacon Street there the office was there in the early 50s and she came to work every monitor on a Holley Davidson motorcycle okay she brought it up she caught him this is just across the street from Emerson College of course is towards the core driver I ran I wanted there Edie this is the lady she walked up the stairs she was his nurse he was everything okay so he was quite an individual Paul Dudley white did you don't normally hear those stairs his daughter was how it is and as doctors will say that there is not a hospital in Boston that doesn't have his picture on the wall that's so my father had the best treatment that was available at the time but he always made sure to tell his kids if you got a medical issue seven kids you could downtown you don't stay at the local County Hospital he goes the city to get it MGH bring him under woman's a New England Baptist whatever you want to go st. Elizabeth I just go downtown and sense so that this is there and as I said the tradition is there he could make it i I had members who were I had a guy who cousin Bob Curtis my my my God's hers is his nephew there who was shot up bad and and at the Pacific or world watch ill he has a Peter abroad star or Silver Star his own he was a corporal and very Clara the other remember the family served and the guide was with Mike and severely will Mike Dukakis another wasn't the boats ran the boats and that's Wahb had gone he would been running a long to show us on the d-day situation type of hurricane so that the military thing runs in the house the Rick the Korea military does not to me it was another cousin who was an Army artillery officer did his time as a lieutenant captain get out so but there is no generals doc Arnold's no sergeant's major in and your app so you can look at it in several lights so Jim Martin we thank you so much for taking part in the native veterans oral history project thank you for having me you

Channel: natvets1

Views: 7,722

Rating: 4.443038 out of 5

Keywords: 11th Marines, Vietnam, Officers Candidates School, Boston Public Schools

Id: AEyilonhqtY

Length: 84min 44sec (5084 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 11 2019