Soldiers’ sacrifices remembered

Memorial Day offers the opportunity to honor the sacrifices of soldiers who gave their lives for their country, including two natives of Washington County who were killed during the Vietnam War.
The name of the only Calais native to fall in the Vietnam War can be found on Panel 08E, line 18 on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Ira Hilton Perkins Jr., a member of the 101st Airborne Division, fell at the age of 29 on June 7, 1966, in Kon Tum Province, Vietnam. He died during a search and destroy operation in Dak To and was credited by fellow soldiers with saving the lives of others, making him the posthumous recipient of a Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and Purple Heart. While he was alive, Perkins had received the Silver Star and Bronze Star.
Perkins, called by his middle name by family members, was close to his sister Celia Caruso, and on what turned out to be the day he died, she recalls, "I was going to bed and looked up to see a vision of a soldier sitting on the bed. He told me Hilton had died."
"Mom learned three days later that he was missing, and when those three days were up my mother had to call to tell me he had been killed on the day I saw the vision," remembers Caruso, who was living in Massachusetts at the time. "I remember his funeral in Calais. I was devastated."
"He had a great sense of humor, and it used to annoy me that he was so goddamn smart," chuckles Caruso, who was two years older than her brother. "He would read a book once and know it inside and out."
"His IQ was so high that he was a genius," adds Caruso. "He took a military test that few people could ace, but he got a perfect 100 on it and carried a newspaper clipping about it in his wallet. He was prouder of that than anything else."
"I could talk to you all doggone day about Hilton," says Ira Perkins Jr.'s uncle, Howard Seavey. "I think I'm eight years older than him, but he was very pleasant to be around, and we were quite close when he was a boy."
"I lived in Crawford and he grew up in Alexander," recalls Seavey, who is the brother of Hilton's late mother Doris. "I come from a big family and was around a whole lot."
"I was in the Marines, and he wanted to follow in my footsteps," recalls Seavey of Perkins' decision to enlist after graduating from Calais Memorial High School in 1954. "It was obviously a shock to me when he died." He adds, "I loved him like a brother."
One of his men, paratrooper Nick Fondo of A Company (known as ABU), 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, has written a touching tribute to Perkins, which can be found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Virtual Wall:

The Last of the Mighty ABUs
As we walked into the valley, we all knew
that this could be our last day too.
Suddenly a machine gun's deadly chatter
Everyone has begun to scatter.
Like a man among men he stood
Charging and firing
Shouting orders loud and clear
Complete disregard for his life
A life he held dear.
Trying to save those abreast
Giving it his all, doing his best.
The fighting grew fierce and savage!
Though severely wounded and knocked to the ground,
He rose like a demon bred of hate!
Fire in his eyes,
I am sure he knew his fate.
The enemy was upon us,
Bayonet to bayonet, hand to hand,
SSgt. Perkins was making a stand.
Perkins could have laid down.
The medic I am sure would have him shipped away
To fight another day,
But that was not his way!
As we lay down in the [enemy's] fire,
He continued the deadly charge.
The enemy surely knew
This amazing feat of courageousness
Was SSgt. Perkins Airborne through and through!
This was SSgt. Perkins, the Mighty Drew!
Courageous, fearless and severely wounded, too,
I am sure he knew
He was to meet his maker that fateful day,
In a country far away!
SSgt. Perkins fell that day.
We who survive were but a few,
The last of the Mighty ABUs!"

Hilton Perkins left behind a daughter Ann and sons Nino, Thomas, Jonathan, Robert and the late David Perkins.

Pembroke man killed by friendly fire
Recently, the Middleboro Gazette of Massachusetts ran an article titled "Remember the Fallen" about the late Zane Carter of West Pembroke, who lost his life in 1967 during the Vietnam War. The author, Bob Lessard, was greatly aided by Gail Menzel of the Pembroke Historical Society, who was instrumental in uncovering many aspects of Zane Carter's life and family history. "Without her diligent research, we probably wouldn't have learned about his personal history," says Lessard.
Carter, a technical sergeant who had served in the U.S. Air Force for almost 19 years, was killed when friendly fire shot down the plane he was in on August 3, 1967, near Quang Ngai, South Vietnam.
Stationed at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Carter had been living on Perry Street in Rock Village, Middleboro, Mass., with his wife, the former June Williams, a native of England, and their two children, daughter Theresa and son Zane, Jr. It was said he was going to retire to Middleboro following his service career.