Veterans tell about struggles during Vietnam, life back home

The upcoming Memorial Day observances create an opportunity for citizens to reflect on the sacrifices made by U.S. service personnel. After decades of silence, some veterans of the Vietnam War are just now talking about their experiences.

Marine called to duty
Former Marine Leroy "Roy" Kelley of Lubec remembers when his flight from California landed in Da Nang, Vietnam. The young man stepped out into heat "that was like an oven. I saw these guys that must have been 20, 21 or 22 years old, but they had spent a year in Vietnam and they looked weather-beaten and very old."
Kelley had been a member of the Class of 1967 at Lubec High School and was working for Pratt & Whitney when he discovered that his draft number was 12, so he enlisted in the Marines in September 1967. "My father and uncles had been Marines, and I decided I wanted to do that," he says of his decision.
After basic training at Parris Island, S.C., Kelley was sent for infantry training in Camp Geiger, N.C., and went on to a naval school in Memphis, Tenn., where he studied avionics. "I thought I was safe," says Kelley of that decision to learn about aviation electronics. "And I thought it would be good for a career when I got out of the military." Next he was sent to the naval air station in Cherry Point, N.C., where he remained for one year before receiving orders "with my name on it" to go to Vietnam in June 1969.
His first assignment at Quan Tri just below the Demilitarized Zone as a machine gunner on a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter. "We could do offense, defense, extractions, transport of troops -- a real workhorse. You could call us anytime, day or night, in any kind of weather. I did that for 13 months, and then I came home. I was 21 years old."
Kelley had signed up for four years, so the E5 spent 12 months in California before leaving the U.S. Marine Corps and coming back to Lubec.
"I came home in one piece -- physically, and I'm okay that way, but that's what makes you mad," he says. "Others didn't."
His daughter is a member of the next generation of Kelleys to serve their country. Angela Calder joined the U.S. Air Force and is currently stationed at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. "She wants to be a PA [physician assistant], and I'm happy that she wants to patch people up," says her proud father.

Wounded in action
Milan Jamieson Jr. of Pembroke was very badly wounded during his tour of duty in Vietnam, painfully proving his father right when the elder Jamieson had told him he'd regret quitting high school.
Jamieson was 18 years old when he dropped out of his senior year at Pembroke High School and signed up with the Marine Corps. "I thought I knew everything," he recalls of his decision to join the military during the Vietnam War. "I went to Bangor and joined up with Richard Lee from Eastport."
He soon found himself at Parris Island with a shaved head and orders to be up every morning at 5 a.m. and standing in formation with tray in hand for breakfast. "No one could sit down until the drill instructor lets you sit down. If he didn't think we did it in unison he'd make us stand up again," Jamieson says of his early training.
Thirteen weeks after he landed at Parris Island, he was transferred to Camp Lejeune for advanced infantry training and went on to Camp Pendleton before going to Okinawa. "I was there one week before going to Da Nang aboard a C-130."
He was with the 3rd Battalion when it was deployed to the Khe Sanh area near the Demilitarized Zone. "We flew in on Caribou transports where we had to jump off the rear of the loading ramp -- while the plane was still moving, with duffle bag and ammo and run to trenches. They were shooting at the plane when we came in, and the whole regiment was under siege." he remembers. "That was about the 14th or 15th of February."
"You're scared," points out Jamieson of the life of a Marine during combat. "But then you get pissed off when someone's shooting at you. You never know inside -- will you actually kill another human being? But then you turn your anger on the other guy."
The Pembroke Marine had spent one year and four days as a machine gunner in Vietnam when he was wounded on September 11, 1967. "They say the first 30 days and the last 30 days of your tour are the most dangerous, and that's turned out to be true," he points out. "I had 16 days to go and was ready to go to Quantico, Virginia -- which I'd never heard of at the time."
Jamieson was in a foxhole with two other Marines when a North Vietnamese soldier threw a hand grenade at them. "They were both killed, and I was wounded in the back. They almost took my shoulder off," he recalls of the attack. "I tried to run back farther into the lines to be saved, and they shot me in the face."
He remembers lying on the ground at about 1:30 a.m., pretending to be dead. The enemy had taken his wallet and other personal items, but Jamieson had so much blood covering him, his wristwatch went unnoticed. "I hid in the trench until 5 a.m. when they came looking for survivors and found me.
The young Marine was taken to a field hospital and then on to Da Nang for treatment. "For the next 10 days, I don't remember much. I was moved to Japan, where they cleaned me up and stapled me back together. The swelling went down, and I got my eyesight back.
His injuries were then treated at a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, before he went on to Walter Reed Hospital and, finally, Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts. "I turned 20 in intensive care," says Jamieson, who became friends with two other wounded men from Washington County. "I met Robert Giles from Lubec and Steve Pressley of Whiting there.
In the decades since his experience in Vietnam, Jamieson admits "to dark moments. But I don't go near them now.
"People in town have been very good to me. I have a good wife, and I talk to Bob [Giles] once or twice a month, and that helps.

Lending a caring hand to veterans
A Vietnam veteran who now calls Eastport home says he is happy when he is able to help military veterans who need counselling. "I'm glad God let me go home, because I've already been able to help six or seven veterans by showing them that help is out there," says Victor Voisine. "It's free. Take it. You earned it."
The native of Keegan in Aroostook County was a 22-year-old newlywed and working in a transmission shop when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Fort Dix for basic training. His next post was in Oklahoma, where he received advanced missile and artillery training.
"I came home for one week and then to Vietnam," remembers Voisine, who started out in the 2nd Field Force before being transferred to the 25th Infantry. Growing up in a French-speaking family came in handy while he was overseas. "The Vietnamese spoke French, so I did interpretation work.
"I was there from 1968 to 1969, and then we got hit hard with the Tet offensive," remembers Voisine. "We were overrun, and I lost quite a few friends. They came right through the camp and out the other side.
He recalls that his life was saved by a bag of sand while he was delivering ammunition in a five-ton truck. "I decided to put three layers of sandbags underneath me, instead of the usual two, and when I hit a landmine, the force took the hood and the driver's wheel with it, but it didn't get through the top bag of sand.
Throughout his one year mission in Vietnam, Voisine says it was very rare to see any other soldiers he knew. "They say you went to Vietnam by yourself, made friends and came home by yourself, and that was true. And then, when I came home and landed in California, I was called 'baby killer' by some hippies.
The sights and sounds he experienced during his tour in Vietnam turned Voisine into an angry man with a short fuse when he got home. His wife, Ronnie, convinced him to seek help, and he wound up traveling four times a year to the Togus VA Medical Center for counseling. "Then it went down to two times a year to Togus, and I began going to the Veterans Center in Bangor.
"I'm glad I have her," he says of Ronnie. "Sometimes I want to go into the woods and hide, but she's been patient with me.
"I've showed a lot of veterans how to get through the system," points out Voisine, who is the commander of VFW post #558 in Eastport. "It's important that they don't get discouraged.
Any military veteran who wants to get in contact with Victor Voisine may call him at 853-9594.