Vietnam vet to brethren: ‘Come out of shadows’

It usually doesn’t take me long to ask someone, “So where are you from? Where are your people from?”

I still haven’t done that with Chuck Knowlen, either on the phone or in person. Usually our topic of conversation is the Vietnam War and its veterans, about which he has spoken to groups ranging from 1,000 people at a Memorial Day service to three schoolchildren interviewing him in the Ambassadors for Patriotism program at the Cole Land Transportation Museum.

I knew that he was born in Lincoln and grew up in East Holden, something I learned when he came with Galen Cole to speak to Esther Eayres and Frances Dighton Williams chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

It got me thinking later about the fact that Knowlen is kind of an unusual spelling, at least in my experience.

I find in census records that Knowlen and Knowland families have been in Maine, in locations as spread out as Levant, Masardis and Stockholm, for at least two centuries.

Chuck Knowlen is one of 89 Maine veterans profiled in Don Colson’s “Quiet Courage,” the book published recently by the Cole Museum.

I read in the book some things Chuck has never mentioned to me, such as the Legion of Merit, Silver Star and two Bronze Stars he earned during his 20 years in the Army.

But more than his medals, or even his Maine roots, I think I’ll remember how he has encouraged other Vietnam veterans to turn out for events such as today’s Bangor-Brewer Veterans Day Parade, beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Wilson Street in Brewer.

He said to the DAR members just over a week ago, “I want all Vietnam vets possible to get out of the shadows.”

Amen to that.

When you go to the parade, take off your hat when the U.S. Flag passes by, and put your right hand over your heart. (The same is called for at sporting events during the National Anthem.)

Activities at the Cole Museum, 405 Perry Road in Bangor, will continue this afternoon. Schoolchildren will be honored for winning essays, “What Freedom Means to Me after Interviewing a Veteran,” at 1 p.m. Hear the Bangor Band in a concert of patriotic music at 2 p.m. before the museum closes for the winter.

One of the World War II veterans I’ve been thinking about this week is Bud Lyford of Brewer, who is recuperating after surgery.

His wife, Jean Thompson Lyford, was telling me the other day about Bud’s coming through Bangor on a hospital train decades ago after being wounded in Europe during the war.

Somehow Bud got word to his young wife that she should be watching for the train that day. Four times she made her way to Union Station in Bangor on a cold, rainy day before finally seeing her husband for a short time.

By the time I met the Lyfords nearly three decades ago, they had raised their children and were enjoying grandchildren. But in the 1940s they were, like many people these days, a young family affected by a war.

Wilcox is a surname that has been around Maine for two centuries, according to census records, not to mention Minnesota, Iowa, Washington, Kansas and Ontario.

This year we add Georgia to that list, sending hugs to Marine Cpl. Christopher Wilcox of Glenburn.

To all our veterans, servicemen and -women, our thanks.

The Washington County Genealogical Society will meet at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at the home of Valdine Atwood, 2 Court St., Machias. It is the house with the red shutters right across from the Burnham Tavern.

Besides the business meeting and discussions of ongoing genealogy research, participants will have the opportunity to peruse the research books in Atwood’s collection. I can tell you that her collection is well worth a look!

Organized in 1992, the society has as its purpose to collect, exchange and preserve related documents and information, and to promote and encourage interest and scholarship in genealogy and family history in Washington County, Maine.

Membership in the WCGS is open to anyone interested in learning more about their family genealogy and history, especially in Washington County and neighboring Charlotte County, New Brunswick.

The group meets March to November, with the exception of July and August. Dues are $10 per year. Members receive a quarterly newsletter, “Weirs & Woods,” which features free queries, information and the exchange of genealogical material.

For further information, contact president Frances Raye at 853-6630, or secretary Valdine Atwood at 255-4432.

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or e-mail queries to familyti@bangordailynews.net.