Ninety years ago, the roar of the last gun fell silent in what was called “the war to end all wars” with signing of an armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
The day was originally declared Armistice Day for those who fought in the first world war, but was later expanded and now is celebrated as the Veterans’ Day for all soldiers.
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Ninety six-year-old Herbert N. Jennings of Plymouth recalls looking into the sky from a field hospital on the island of Saipan in 1945: “The sky black with planes, all guarding this one, the one that was carrying the bomb into Japan.”
Jennings is a World War II Navy veteran who served aboard the LSM 106 (land ship medium) that ushered troops from their naval transports to shore during many of America’s island-hopping campaigns across the Pacific.
“We start heading in and the big ships in back fired over top of us. My job was to make sure the land craft got back of the beach. We’d hit it hard, so the soldiers don’t have to swim, you don’t want that,” said Jennings. The former sailor said he would often help to get the ship off the shore after dropping off troops and help load the wounded.
Jennings joined the Navy with the consent of his father in 1929 at the age of 16. He served two years and was then drafted back into service in the summer of 1943.
Jennings was wounded in combat as his ship was heading into shore. “Heavy seas and we were being shelled,” said Jennings, who was blown from the gun deck of his ship and into the shipwell.
Jennings was shipped to the field hospital in Saipan with serious back injuries where he witnessed the Enola Gay passing overhead, carrying the first atomic bomb to the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
“When I got there they told me ‘they want to send you home’ but I wanted to get back to my ship,” said Jennings. The wounded sailor took the advice of a friend and went to the local airfield where he hitchhiked a ride with an air crew.
“I hitched a ride on four planes to get back to the ship,” he said.
Later Jennings would be reunited with his younger brother in Japan following the surrender. All three of his brothers fought in the war, and all of them survived.
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Frank V. Revoir of Norwich graduated from Cornell University in 1965 as part of the Army’s ROTC program and went immediately into active duty.
“I was on active duty for about six months before I was told I’d be going to Vietnam,” said Revoir.
Just 21 days after his first son was born, Revoir was sent to Vietnam in March of 1966. “I wouldn’t see him again until he was about 13 months old,” said Revoir.
Revoir stayed at the Victoria Hotel in Saigon that was seized by the military to house troops.
Late one night, a car bomb was detonated outside the makeshift barracks while Revoir slept inside. “Do you remember the images of the Oklahoma City bombing, with the building just torn in half? Same idea, a car bomb destroyed half the building with a couple thousand pounds of explosives,” he said.
Revoir was wounded by shrapnel that struck his legs, feet and back. He said he would have been killed, but concrete barriers prevented the driver of the vehicle from penetrating into the lobby.
“It’s hard to remember things ... the building was coming down and it was 4, 5 o’clock in the morning but that’s when most of those attacks usually occurred,” he said.
Revoir’s wife received a telegram telling her he was wounded but alive and there would be no further communication. The couple still keeps the note in an album.
Revoir worked to deliver supplies during the war to civilians, troops and special forces.
“You work seven days a week there is no such thing as a day off. In a theater of conflict, it’s not usual,” said Revoir.
Revoir also said almost all troops caught a disease at some point. He himself suffered from several bouts of dysentery. “Most folks did, no matter how careful you were. In the topics there is a whole array of things you can get exposed to that you never see in a temperate climate,” he said.
At the time he was in Vietnam, Revoir said the morale was still “particularly high” unlike the later years in the conflict, but he said he was glad to come home.
“I tell you whenever you see those pictures of soldiers coming home and kissing the ground, let me tell you, it’s true,” said Revoir, who admitted to kissing the tarmac when he got off the plane in California.
“I ran for my life on a few occasions,” said Revoir, who likens the Vietnam conflict to the one being fought in Iraq.
“The enemy did not wear uniforms. They were all blended in with the civilians, and you never know when a child might run up and toss a grenade in the jeep,” he said.
Revoir returned in February of 1967 as 1st lieutenant, saying he was an old man compared to the average solider.
“I celebrated my 25 birthday there. I was an old man. Many were 18 and 19 year old boys. That’s one of the most unfortunate parts of any war, the loss of a whole generation,” he said.
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Twenty seven-year-old Army Sgt. Christopher Brazee of Norwich joined the U.S. armed services in July of 1999. He recently left the military in May of 2007 after serving two tours in Afghanistan, the last one of them as part of a stop loss year-long extension on his term of service.
After eight years of service, Brazee walked away, saying, “I never wanted to really make a career out of it and after two deployments and two close calls, I said ‘You know what? I’m done.’”
The last close call for Brazee happened after he returned to the United States from overseas and was debating a third reenlistment. For the ten months prior, Brazee had been working guard duty outside a U.S. base in Afghanistan. Brazee said he worked 10-hour shifts by inspecting incoming trucks delivering food for the troops from private contractors.
“So they basically open the door and I go out there by myself with a civilian, with the tower above me as my support, it can make you a little nervous,” said Brazee, who said soldiers would alternate in performing the checks to help reduce stress.
Brazee was required to train his replacement in the months before he was sent home and just seven days after he left the base, he heard disturbing news.
“A week to the day I got back, the E5 (Sgt.) I had trained and the civilian employee I had worked with every day were killed by a car bomb while doing the same thing I had done for the last 10 months,” said Brazee.
Despite the $25,000 bonus offered him, he decided he had enough and returned home to Norwich.
The first near-miss for Brazee was in 2003 when an IED exploded at an intersection his vehicle had just passed through. A German convoy behind him was hit, killing eight German soldiers and several civilians.
Brazee said he was frustrated with the lack of support for the war, saying, “There are things that have to be done and everyone has to understand that.”
Brazee said he’s is angry with people who say, “We shouldn’t be over there” or that we should “just nuke it.”
“They (Afghans) are good hearted people who make do with what they’ve got. A handful of people ruin the country for hundreds of thousands that are trying to live there. I’ve spent the last eight years of my life defending this, and people say I don’t even know why I was over there,” said Brazee.