By: John Cuddy – February 2018 Truly a “hero in our midst”, it was an honor to interview Major Kelley. We are from the same home town, Lawrence, Massachusetts, and he went to grade school with my father at St Patrick’s Grammar School, but I never had the chance to really talk to Major Rick […]
NORTH ANDOVER – Last month The Valley Patriot went along with Gerard Maguire, the Veteran’s Services Coordinator for the towns of North Andover and Boxford as he delivered a custom fitted, electric wheelchair for a WWII hero veteran who lost his arm in battle and now is unable to walk. Richard Lussier fought against the […]
By: Helen Mooradkanian – December, 2013 In the early dawn hours of March 25, 1969, in the rice paddies of South Vietnam, near Bong Son, in the province of Binh Dinh, 22-year old Sergeant Thomas F. Siopes, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade (separate), was leading a patrol on a “search and […]
Helen Mooradkanian – March, 2012 Colonel Kris Mineau, USAF (Ret.), of North Reading, flew 100 combat missions into North Vietnam in 1966 as fighter pilot in the supersonic F-4C Phantom II. Capable of speed Mach 2.23, more than twice the speed of sound, the Phantom was key to downing the Soviet MiG-21s used by the […]
By: Lonnie Brennan – April, 2008 METHUEN – Her statistics from 1970 are simple: female, 5 foot five inches, 125 pounds, age 19. As she entered her Junior year at the now-closed Catholic Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont, Agnes M. Bresnahan was surrounded daily by images of the Vietnam war: Images of war protests on […]
By Dr. Charles Ormsby – December 6, 2005 ANDOVER, MA – John Doherty had a lot of family history to uphold. His family had lived in Andover for over 150 years and the Doherty Elementary School is named after his uncle, Bill Doherty, after he served 39 years on the Andover School Committee. John’s […]
By: Charles Ormsby – October, 2005 Frank Shimko, E-4 Communications Specialist Frank Shimko didn’t think his future lay in Nebraska, so at 19 he enlisted in the Army. It was the summer of 1965. Not long afterwards, he found himself on the other side of the world and in harm’s way. Frank was born […]
By Dr. Charles Ormsby – August, 2005 Bound, blindfolded and badly injured, Captain Jim Mulligan was led through the angry crowd of Vietnamese peasants. They screamed in Vietnamese while striking him with sticks and pelting him with stones. He was then placed on a mound of freshly dug earth while a man made a loud and […]
By: Charles Ormsby – July, 2005 Charles Bruderer of Methuen is just wrapping up his military career. He will be leaving the National Guard after 33 years of service to our country and a record that recently won him the Meritorious Service Medal. Born in Ogden, Utah and raised in Brigham City, Charles found himself between jobs […]