By Gene Doremus
Note: Gene wrote this for the Community Singers’ annual Salute to America concert in July. These three men were recognized for their service.
Bob Clark was born in January 1947, grew up on a farm in Bridgewater and graduated from Bridgewater High School in 1966.
Drafted in his senior year, he got a school deferment.
Soon after graduation, Bob got married and enlisted in the Army.
The Army trained him to be a medic and sent him to Hawaii to be part of the yearlong re-activation of the 11th Light Infantry Brigade at Scofield Barracks.
After a year of tactical training on the island of Oahu that had similarities to the Vietnam jungle, Bob and the new brigade deployed to Duc Pho South Vietnam to join the 101st Airborne paratroopers doing search and destroy operations in the jungles near the North Vietnam border.
Remember, Bob was not an infantryman, he was a combat medic and would fly into combat zones and retrieve wounded soldiers.
He arrived in Vietnam Dec. 2, 1967.
As soon as I heard “December 1967” I said to Bob: “So you got there just in time for the Tet Offensive?” Recall the Tet Offensive, in January 1968, was a simultaneous attack by North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces.
Heavy casualties were inflicted all over South Vietnam.
Bob said: “No, they were not attacked in January; for them, it was in late May when his base came under a heavy mortar attack.”
Bob vividly remembers that day, it was May 29.
He was in the emergency room of the ...
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