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Marc Laplante is a 10-term Lawrence City Councilor. The following is an excerpt from a book he is authoring on the stories of those who received official naming dedications in Lawrence. James A. Mulligan, Jr. Square is located at the intersection of Salem St. and Everett St.
The February 13, 1973 newspapers around the world led with the story of 143 Vietnam Prisoners of War (POWs) finally being released and freed. James “Jim” Mulligan, one of the oldest POWs, was one of the first to step off the plane as a free man after seven years in captivity. His military career included war time service during World War 2, Korea, and Vietnam.
Mulligan, who was born at 29 Lynn Street and later moved with his family to 310 Salem St., was a Lawrence native. The family attended St. Patrick’s Church, and Jim went to St. Patrick’s School and graduated from Central Catholic High School (class of 1944).
At age 17, he was sworn into the US Navy’s pre-aviation, V-5 flying program, at Holy Cross College. In a 2001 interview with the Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Mulligan explained why he joined the Navy.
“I liked the idea of carrier flying, particularly as far as the military went, I wouldn’t have thought of going into any other service but the Navy.” As WW2 was ending, Mulligan was training as a Tarmac Apprentice Seaman in San Diego, CA, on his way to becoming a naval aviator.
Mulligan successfully completed aviation training in 1948 and married Louise Kolce (Lawrence High School, 1946) at a ceremony at Quonset Point Naval Air Station (NAS), Rhode Island. Life was moving quickly for Mulligan and his bride. He enrolled in Merrimack College when he completed his active-duty commitment to the Navy in 1949.
With the war’s end, he also transitioned into the Naval Reserves flying F4-Corsairs out of Squantum NAS in Massachusetts. However, the tensions in Korea brought Mulligan back to active duty and he was sent to the Mediterranean Sea to fly AD-3W Skyraiders, an early-warning radar aircraft. During the Korean War, he served on the USS Coral Sea, did not see combat, and returned home after his two-year stint to continue his studies at Merrimack College.
Life with Louise in those early years was split between the Korean War, the Naval Reserves, Merrimack College, and a growing family. Before graduating he also served as an intern for Lawrence Congressman Thomas Lane, in Washington, D.C. He told me that Lane had him work a research project on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada. The topic was controversial for New England legislators as the opening of the Great Lakes seaway would potentially impact New England ports and trade.
Lane directed Mulligan to attend a meeting at Senator John F. Kennedy’s office to share information and work on legislative strategy with Kennedy’s legislative staff. He was shocked when he entered the room and saw that Kennedy was part of the meeting. Soon, Mulligan witnessed Kennedy’s temper as Kennedy was angered by the morning’s Boston Post editorial that, according to Kennedy, mischaracterized Kennedy’s position on the issue.
“The newspaper will not be in business much longer if I have anything to do about it,” Mulligan recounted Kennedy’s words amidst some generous profanity. The Boston Post stopped publishing months later. Kennedy and Mulligan’s paths would cross again. But first, Mulligan, would stay in the reserves flying fighter jets out of South Weymouth NAS and graduate (finally) from Merrimack College (1955) as its valedictorian.
Shortly after college graduation, Mulligan returned to Navy active duty and would remain on active duty until his career ended nearly 20 years later. He was so good at flying that he was billeted as a flight instructor for three years.
Soon Kennedy was elected President and by then Mulligan was in Oceana NAS, Virginia flying A4-D Skyhawks. He was assigned to the USS Independence where he made three Mediterranean cruises. However, his most memorable event occurred during his time far from the Mediterranean Sea when President Kennedy received intelligence that the Soviet Union was shipping missiles to Cuba.
This threat to the United States spurred Kennedy to implement a naval quarantine around Cuba to intercept supplies that contributed to the threat and brought the superpowers to the brink of war. The Independence urgently steamed to the area. According to Mulligan, “…we got some initial intelligence, and the intelligence told us that the Russians were in the process of putting up missile sites and I can tell you right now the target I had was a place called Los Angeles Banes and not too far from Guantanamo.”
Mulligan continued, “I remember the day the CO (commanding officer) decided I should lead the strike against Los Angeles Banes if we were going to get launched and that was our target and so we were briefed on everything. We were standing by and we went to a ‘ready alert’ and then we went to the ‘pilots, man your planes’….I am sure where I was going, and the plan was go, take out this target, come back, reconfigure for nuclear weapons, and the ship would go right to the North Atlantic launch area. We had a launch area in the Atlantic where we all had…targets in Russia – that was the game plan.” While Mulligan was ready to launch off the aircraft carrier’s catapult, the strike was called off by the Kennedy White House.
“They start winding me up and getting ready to go…and then the bullhorn says, ‘Washington has just given us a halt, to hold in place. They’ve (the Soviets) stopped and turned around.’” A potential World War 3 was averted with Mulligan moments away from bombing a missile site in Cuba. “The Missile Crisis was a real fascinating part of my career because we were smack right in the middle of it from start to finish.”
During his shortened presidential term due to his eventual assassination, Kennedy sent special advisors in Vietnam to aid against the Communist threat in Southeast Asia. This policy would greatly impact Mulligan as he was a part of a growing military presence in the region. Mulligan was assigned to the USS Enterprise off the Vietnam coast. On March 20, 1966, he was a piloting an A-4C Skyhawk on a mission to bomb a bridge used for an enemy supply line. This was a routine mission for Mulligan, who already spent four months in the area. However, as he approached his target, he was hit by a surface to air missile.
In his book, “The Hanoi Commitment,” Mulligan wrote that he “couldn’t see the console because of the black smoke that filled the cockpit, the heat was getting intense and the muffled explosion from the engine told me that the end was near. I was hurting from the blow to my chest. All I could think of was, turn for the sea and safety, but the stick still wouldn’t budge and I was helplessly just along for the ride in my disintegrating Skyhawk…. It was the first scratch I had on my 80th mission. Until that time, I hadn’t had a scratch.”
Mulligan ejected, and landed in a rice paddy, unconscious. After about 15 to 20 minutes, he was found by locals and brought to the North Vietnamese authorities. This would be the first of his 2,522 days in captivity as a POW. He was held and tortured in several notorious prison locations including sites that the POWs called the “Hanoi Hilton” and “Alcatraz.” In a Washington Post interview, Mulligan described his torture.
“They put three sets of irons on my legs and made me kneel. Then they roped my wrists and arms behind my back, pulling them so tight I thought my chest would burst and my arms would fall off . . . they beat me about the head and body; dragged me about the room by my ears and hair . . .. I pleaded pitifully for mercy but to no avail.”
The worse was “Alcatraz” where 11 American prison leaders were removed from the “Hanoi Hilton” because of their resistance. Mulligan’s cell “was ten feet long, a little more than four feet wide.” He was in solitary confinement and slept in leg irons with a maggot infested sanitation bucket used to relieve himself. Mulligan was provided very little food. The lead guard, known as “Rat,” said, “You are in the bad camp. Since tonight my guards will put you in the leg shackles as punishment for all your bad deeds.” Congressman James Dold, Jr (R-IL) described the significance of “Alcatraz” on the House floor.
He said that Mulligan and the other 10 POWs “were able to get out of their cell for 15 minutes a day to be able to go empty their sanitation bucket….I want people to understand ‘Alcatraz’ for a minute. The reason why these 11 men went to ‘Alcatraz’ is because they were the thorn in the side of the North Vietnamese. They were the ones that resisted the hardest. They were the ones that caused the problems.”
Back home, Louise and the family did not forget their husband and father. She was instrumental, as a leader of the POW wives, to pressure the United States government on releasing the POWs and making sure that they were not forgotten.
Captain James A. Mulligan was finally released on February 12, 1973. Before boarding the C-141 for freedom, Mulligan said in his book that he “looked at the scars on my wrists from the ropes and the gasoline. I thought of the torture, the beatings, the starvation and loneliness. The utter misery of solitary confinement, Alcatraz and all of its horrors flashed before me…. We had done our very best. It had been a damn lousy war. More than most, in our hearts we knew it, because we had paid a terrible price.”
Over his military career, he accumulated over 5,000 flight hours, with 650 carrier landings. He was involved in various business enterprises until late in life. Jim and Louise Mulligan were married for over 73 years, and they retired in Virginia Beach, VA.
“Code of conduct fits into my values system,” said Mulligan.
“The democratic processes in this country fits into 50% of my value system…. So, that’s what I fought for and that’s what allowed me to survive, my family values, my Christian values. I’m a church going person. I happen to be a Roman Catholic but I’m a follower of Christ, that’s what it comes down to, and that helped me particularly in solitary. Solitary was difficult. I would rather take physical torture in Hanoi than take solitary.” In the book that he gave me, he wrote on the inside cover, “Freedom is our most precious possession.” Jim Mulligan died on January 18, 2023, at the age of 96.
The Merrimack Valley American Legion Posts ask all World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans to call (603) 518-5368 and sign up for an Honor Flight to the National Memorials in Washington DC! The Valley Patriot staff ask Veterans of all eras, to go to the American Legion’s Web site www.legion.org, and join the American Legion. The American Legion’s mission is working with our Congress, our Nation’s Veterans, and our community, preserving our Veteran’s Benefits for future generations and serving all Veterans and their families.
John Cuddy served in the US Navy’s Construction Battalions (also known as the Seabees) after retiring from the US Navy; he earned a bachelor’s in history and a master’s in economics from the University of Massachusetts on the Lowell Campus. He has been employed in Logistics at FedEx for the last 28 years. If you know a World War II, Korean War, or Vietnam War Veteran who would like their story told, please email him at John.Cuddy@Yahoo.com ◊