The October veterans’ meeting in Damariscotta welcomed 15 veterans of foreign conflicts including World War II, Korea, Guam and Vietnam. The group meets at Chase Point so those who reside in assisted living facilities on the Miles Memorial Hospital campus can easily attend.
Each month the former servicemen and women hear a presentation, sometimes by other local vets, and sometimes by guest speakers. Bristol veteran Jerry Elwell was the group’s guest speaker Oct. 5.
Elwell said he was drafted into the Army on Nov. 9, 1967. He was told to bring only a toothbrush and a change of underwear to his induction. He was sent immediately to Fort Dix, N. J. for basic training then on to Panama for combat training.
He arrived in Vietnam Dec. 24, 1967, Christmas Eve, less than seven weeks after his departure from home. The plane that carried him was fired upon before it even landed at Tonsanut Air Base in Saigon.
Elwell said one of the many images that has stuck with him over the years was a senior officer who was sitting watching the men as they disembarked the aircraft. He looked at the new arrivals as they rounded up and deployed.
“It was the look in his eyes I can’t ever forget,” said Elwell,” He looked at us with his eyes full of tears and said, ‘All these young boys, I just don’t know. I just don’t know.'”
Elwell had no time to ask what the officer meant. He was immediately sent to join the 9th Infantry Division at a fire support base in the south.
“I put down my duffle (bag) on the tarmac and I never saw it again,” he said. “You know, folks back home thought that most soldiers were drinking and drugging in Vietnam. We never saw the inside of a bar. We were in combat every day from day one.”
He was deployed south to defend Highway QL4, in the Mekong Delta. Although the soldiers were not aware of it at the time, this was the build up to the infamous Tet Offensive.
Radio code names were always assigned upon arrival. Elwell’s was Peanut. “Guess why?” he joked, standing in camouflage fatigues from 40 years ago, which are big and baggy on his slight frame. “These were my second set,” he said,” You put those on and wore them till they fell apart or they cut them off.”
During the week of Feb. 2, 1968, Elwell was shot in the leg. Medics patched him up and he stayed on duty with his detachment. Less than one week later, still under heavy fire, Elwell saw a big puff of smoke. He remembers nothing until a week later when he woke up in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit.
According to the military reports, Elwell kept on fighting along with his unit although he was wounded at least twice more. “Charlie (as US soldiers called the North Vietnamese Soldiers) intended to kill us all,” he said. “They thought I was dead, or I would be now.”
Of 108 men in his unit, only eight men survived as of Feb. 18, 1968.
Even the new M.A.S.H. moveable hospital was not safe from fire. “I was on a stretcher when we were mortared,” Elwell said. “There was this baby in there too, and one of the Medics put her on the ground and covered her over with his own helmet.”
Elwell’s war experience ended after that firefight Feb. 18. He was decorated with numerous medals including three purple hearts but said, “The heroes are back there on the ground.”
According to the Maine.Gov website 343 men from Maine died in Vietnam and 15 Mainers are still listed as missing in action.
Part of Elwell’s Vietnam experience is detailed in the book “Visions of Vietnam” by photojournalist James N. McJunkin and artist Max D. Crace.
Two photos of Elwell are included in the section called “Grunts,” the term used for regular infantry soldiers. McJunkin’s original photographs now hang in the Chicago’s National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, with “Peanut” Elwell appearing on a tank in two of them.
Elwell finished his talk with a video of the Tet Offensive, which was the first time that warfare had come to city streets in Vietnam.
All Lincoln County area veterans are cordially invited to attend a Veteran’s Day celebration on Wed., Nov. 9 at Medomak Middle School, beginning at 12:10 p.m. This very special Veteran’s Day ceremony will include recognition and biographies of several local veterans, flag folding, patriotic music by the MMS band and chorus, as well as patriotic readings by staff and students.
The Damariscotta veteran’s group meets on the first Wednesday of every month. The next meeting is set for Wed., Nov. 2 at 9:30 a.m. in the Community Room at Chase Point.
Organizers encourage anyone who is interested to attend. Each meeting usually features a guest speaker.
The group is unaffiliated with any larger group and is a grassroots effort to increase support and camaraderie among people with similar experiences.
