BROWNVILLE – When Eldrick “Al” Dumont returned home after serving his country for 20 years – the last year as a combat medic in Da Nang, Vietnam – there were no handshakes or expressions of thanks for his service.
Instead of a hero’s welcome, Dumont said, he and his fellow service men and women were treated like outcasts.
Not until Monday were Dumont, 71, and two other local Vietnam veterans and a World War II veteran treated as heroes and thanked for their long-ago service.
Helping to make those amends was a group of children who were born long after those hard-fought battles.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it before,” Dumont said Monday after receiving a Silver Star from military officials during a ceremony at the Brownville Elementary School. “Nobody has treated Vietnam veterans as well as they have today.”
Pupils speaking at the ceremony were Jake McSwine, Micki Lovejoy, Anisa Witham, Nichole Padilla, Dana Sherwood and Trevor Lyford, some of whom were related to the honored guests.
The recognition and thanks came too late for Capt. Alice M. Zwicker of the Army Nurse Corps, who died in 1976. Her Silver Star was presented Monday to her brother, Eli Zwicker. She had enlisted in the corps in 1941 and worked in field hospitals in Bataan and Corregidor, both in. After the U.S. surrendered to Japan in the Philippines in 1942, Zwicker was sent to a prison camp in Manila. After her liberation, she returned home in 1945.
Eli Zwicker, who also served his country, was recognized with a certificate of appreciation.
Retired Lt. Col. Peter Ogden and Col. Peter Lagace, who on Monday was standing in for Maj. Gen. John Libby, made presentations to both Zwicker and Dumont, as well Richard Sawtell and James Melanson.
Sawtell, who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970, was injured during an attack on a helicopter landing zone his unit was defending. He spent two months at Camp Zama in Japan before he was discharged and returned home.
Because he was ill, Melanson’s Silver Star award was accepted by his wife, Carol. He served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. He earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
Dumont called the ceremony touching. He said he hoped the service men and women returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan are treated better than the Vietnam veterans or those treating the veterans poorly “will have to answer to me.”
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