Memorial plaque honors veterans from Hermon

HERMON – Bruce Brown was surprised to learn that his name was to be included on the plaque to honor the town’s veterans of the Korean War and the war in Vietnam. Brown, a retired major in the U.S. Air Force, served in both conflicts and World War II. The 74-year-old has lived in the community for 38 years, but he wasn’t born in Hermon.

Louis “Buzzy” LaChance didn’t care. The town councilor wanted to honor every veteran of either war who’d ever lived in town, no matter where he or she had been born. In a ceremony Wednesday night at the town hall, Brown and LaChance unveiled a 4-foot plaque that includes 150 names.

Made of red oak by Raymond Goodspeed, the plaque hangs in the council chamber with similar plaques that honor veterans of World War I and World War II.

“I thinks it’s quite an honor,” said Brown of his name being listed on the plaque. “Too many of the guys who came back from Vietnam were vilified. It’s time someone recognized those guys.”

Although Brown enlisted in June 1946, seven days after he graduated from Milo High School, he didn’t serve in combat until 1953. He was stationed in Okinawa and was a radar operator on night missions in the B-29.

“We used to go up to see a place called North Korea every third night,” he recalled. “We’d go up there and plow up their real estate a bit, dropping 500-pound bombs. With our crude radar equipment, we figured if we got within 1,500 to 2,000 feet of the target, we were doing real good.”

Brown finished up his career at the former Dow Air Force Base in 1966. A few weeks after he put in for retirement, he received orders for Southeast Asia, Brown said. His retirement orders, however, won out and he spent the next 23 years working for Merrill Bank in Bangor.

Brown remembers well his time in uniform.

“I spent 6,000 hours in the B-52,” he said, summing up his military career. “That’s hours and hours of boredom interspersed with a few moments of sheer terror.”

LaChance, who never served in the military but was born in Hermon, said that the unveiling of the plaque had been planned long before the events of Sept. 11. He added that because the nation is at war, the significance of the local event has taken on added meaning.

Local businesses contributed funds to pay for the plaque, he said. Pottle’s Transportation, Dysart’s Truck Stop, Hermon Motors, C&K Variety, Hermon Family Restaurant, Pine Tree Machines, Bangor Truck & Trailer and the Oddfellows made Wednesday night’s ceremony possible, LaChance said.

There is room on the plaque for additional names. Hermon residents or former residents who served in the Korean War or the Vietnam War should contact LaChance at 848-3957.

Veterans listed on the plaque:

Korean War

Ronald E. Adams, George F. Albert, Ernest J. Allard Sr., Philip A. Allard, John F. Anderson, Richard D. Babb Sr., Charles R. Barton, Joseph R. Beaulieu, James B. Bishop, Donald Ellis Bowden, Forest A. Bragg Jr., Wilson Bragg, Bruce B. Brown, Robert E. Bruns, Alexander R. Burgess, Eugene L. Byers, Richard K. Byers, Ronald E. Carmichael, Ralph T. Carr, Carl E. Cronk, James R. Cushing Sr., Joseph S. Dinsmore Jr., Maynard O. Doody, Alton L. Downing, Benny Dunkin.

James J. Enos, Marwin A. Faloon Sr., Robert F. Farrar, David R. Finley, Freeman F. Frost, Thomas E. Frost, Richard A. Gallupe, Walter F. Goodale, Charles I. Graves, Kenneth H. Gray, Dana P. Hamilton, Charles F. Hartley Sr., William E. Hartley Sr., Maynard O. Hawes, Alton F. Herbest, Gordon E. Hewes, Merton D. Hillman, Philip E. Hodsdon, Frank L. Hoskins, William M. Jones III, David Kelley, Dennis A. King, Barry F. Knowles.

Richard Avon Lindsey, Raymond M. Little, Ashel W. MacDonald, Wayne E. MacKenzie, William A. Maguire, Leslie Masson, James C. McCarty, William C. McCarty, Leland D. McClarie, Mylon W. McLaughlin, Charlie Weston Merritt, John A. Modery, James E. Nevells, David H. Norton, Leroy A. Norton, Edward G. Nowell, Beverly K. Overlock, William B. Phelps, Robert E. Phillips, Ronald E. Porter, Frank K. Potter.

Gerald E. Redman, Bruce W. Rogerson, Herbert C. Sewell, Donald E. Shepley, Ralph Fraser Shortt, Carlton W. Sinford, Leonard W. Smith, Percival H. Smith Jr., Lewis H. Snow, Gordon Somers, Harold F. St. Louis, Robert R. Tambling, Robert W. Tapley, Charles E. Thayer, Wallace Tibbetts, Norval A. Toner.

Theodore L. Wegerdt, George E. Wheeler Jr., Harry E. White, Raymond M. White, Fred G. Wiles, William R. Wilson, Elmer G. Wing, Elwin C. Witherly, Gerald G. Work, Walter E. Wyman, Paul E. Young, Louis J. Zelko.

Vietnam War

Daniel G. Albert, Raymond E. Anderson, Joseph W. Auge, Wayne F. Bishop, Brian Bowdoin, Douglas Bradford Jr., Lawrence J. Bragg, Bruce B. Brown, Edward E. Brown, Lawrence J. Butera, Lawrence J. Butera Jr., James E. Carter, John F. Collins, Warren Curtis, Larry A. Davis, Bernard Duplisea, James J. Enos, Stanley R. Fogg, Franklin G.A. Gilks, Charles I. Graves, Allen J. Greenacre.

Robert R. Hall, Winfred R. Halloran, Charles L. Harris, Marion Harrison, Raymond A. Hayes, Bruce Herbest, Dennis Hill, Jeffery A. Homsted, Charles L. Hopkins, Frank L. Hoskins, Jeffrey A. Jones, Raymond F. Joy Sr., Joseph F. Kelly, Barry F. Knowles, Roger Lacrosse, Ed Leonard, Ronald Lord, David A. McGlinchey, Millard P. Morgan, Gary Eugene Morris.

Wendell R. Overlock, John R. Page Sr., Lawrence Page, Roy B. Payne, Robert A. Pickard, John C. Ricigliano, Rick Sinclair, Robert R. Tambling, Cheryl A. Thibodeau, A. James Vashon, James R. Walker, George D. Withee.