VVA Chapter PI 887

The five retired U.S. Marines joked and laughed, told stories from more than 50 years ago and from the other side of the world.

“We get in the car and we’re like teenagers again,” said Ray Baldwin of Connecticut.

Between 1967 and 1969 he and the others bonded in the midst of the Vietnam War, all posted to communications jobs in an artillery unit near Da Nang, where a couple would experience the Tet Offense in 1968.

They came to and left Vietnam at different times, returning home to Oklahoma, New York, Alabama and Wyoming, exchanging phone numbers and promising to keep in touch, but ready to get on with living.

Last week, they converged on the home of Dan Sell outside Cody, the first time the five had all been together since Vietnam. In addition to Baldwin and Sell, a Casper native and longtime Cody resident, Ward Gualtieri came from New York, Ron Havron from Alabama and Earl Milligan from Oklahoma.

“It’s fulfilling,” Sell said of the meet-up. “It’s something we’ve all thought about for years.”

While it was the first meeting for the entire group in decades, some had stayed connected with each other through the years.

In 1989, Sell noticed Baldwin was named as an assistant coach for a Little League World Series Championship team. He reached out, and later when he and his wife Betsy went to visit, Baldwin called up Gualtieri to have him come to Connecticut for dinner.

Havron and Milligan live relatively close, so the two occasionally meet up as well. Milligan had also gone up to Connecticut on the invitation of Baldwin, and the Oklahoman introduced the northerners to the strategy of driving the ball off a beer can. To this day there are still beer can long drive competitions in Connecticut.

Last week they shared drinks and laughs, and memories of the years in Vietnam and the meet-ups after.

Baldwin said they were a stereotype-busting group considering the portrayals of many Vietnam veterans as drug addicts or people struggling to keep lives together.

“We’ve all been successful in our relationships,” he said.

Gualtieri said the relationship the five of them share was forged during a year near the border with North Vietnam when they were all in their late teens or early 20s.

“We are a brotherhood, Marines are all brothers,” he said. “And we were all close brothers.”

They were tasked with communicating with units at the front and relaying orders for artillery barrages from a battery of 155 mm self-propelled howitzers and towed guns.

Sometimes a handful would have to go out to repair a communications post, but all would return to the communications building.

“We had a good time together in tough conditions,” Milligan said. “These guys made everyone get through it sanely.”

They said the sense of humor they all shared helped them during a hazardous time.

“We at best spent 13 months all together, but it was the most defining time of our lives,” Baldwin said.

Havron said the bond he has with the others is closer than many relationships he’s had all his life with people that he’s interacted with far more often.

He also credited modern technology with allowing the connection to grow again in the last couple of decades.

“If it wasn’t for social media, texting, we wouldn’t have stayed in touch,” he said.

Dan’s wife Betsy was credited with getting all of them together. The reunion was planned months in advance. As they talked, she stood in the doorway of Dan’s man cave smiling.

“We’ve been so excited,” she said. “We couldn’t wait.”

The Sells had just recently put a U.S. Marines flag beneath the American one on their tall flag pole.

It was underneath those flags, the symbols of what drew them together more than 50 years ago, where they stood for a picture.

Milligan, oxygen tank and all, had to lay out and pose for a few glamour shots first as the others laughed. His son and daughter-in-law had driven him up from Oklahoma.

“I love these guys and I don’t know why,” he said, smiling. “I think they’ve been a blessing in my life. My son grew up listening to stories about these guys, and he’s a Marine.”

Even half a century can’t break the brotherhood.

Credits / Original source: By ZAC TAYLOR zac@codyenterprise.com / codyenterprise.com