Tell me a little bit about your background and your vision of this country when you graduated high school.

Well, I'm ah thirty-three years old now. I work for the Boston Edison Company. I joined the Marine Corps in 1967, ah after graduating from high school. I had visions of going on to prep school and then onto college, but uh, on the bus ride one day to the Boston Army Base we decided to get off and join the Marine Corps.

Ah, I joined for two years, and uh I had to go home and tell my father, who was a Navy man, like his father was, and uh, it was kind of hard to break the news to him that I had joined the Marines. But uh, as...as disappointed as he was that I wasn't going on to school, he was uh, I think proud that uh, I had taken up the tradition that his family had set and families before him had both joined the service and uh doin' somethin' on behalf of their country.

What was your feeling about the country at that time? What was your feeling about the United States and the war?

Well at the time I joined the Marine Corps the uh so called anti-war movement really hadn't gotten into a big swing. Uh, so to join the Marine Corps, to me, wasn't no big thrill or big deed. Um, it was just uh, a tradition that uh, has gone on in this town for, for many years.

Uh, as far as as the uh, war movement went uh, it hadn't reached its peak uh, until after the uh, the Tet Offensive. Um, and by that time I was in in Vietnam, so the the anti-war movement back home didn't bother me a bit because I had other things on my mind, and I could care less what uh, people had to say about our involvement in there. Because I was there and I, I, I had to worry about myself and the guy that was beside me on my left or right. So...

How did you feel about those people who were your age, uh, draft age, and trying very hard to get out of serving? How did you feel about those people?

Well, as far as the uh, the anti-war people themselves, for uh, one reason or another that went to college because they wanted to get out of the draft or just uh, didn't sign up for the draft, I I really had no feelings because at that point uh, I was just lookin' out for myself. Uh...the...the mood in this town was that uh, it was a tradition to join the service, to do something positive for your country.

Uh, for me to go to Parris Island was uh...it was a positive thing, it was a finishin' school for me. Other kids were goin' to uh, college to f—find out where they were at. I, I, I knew that when I went to Parris Island I was gonna come out of there a much more ahead then uh, then if I went to college.

Let's cut there.

Why did you build this monument? Te—tell me a little bit about the friends you served with, those people who didn't come home.

I uh, I got involved...a couple of years before we even attempted to uh, build a memorial, uh, four out of the twenty-five on the stone I grew up with. We hung on the corner together, we went to school together, fought together, fought each other. And they didn't come home.

We joined the Marine Corps together, and and we organized a tenth anniversary mass, not so much for for them as was, as it was for their families – to let them know that their friends didn't...

Cut. I'm sorry.

Tell me about the four guys that you knew and how you felt when you discovered that they were not coming back.

I didn't learn the death of uh, my four friends when it happened. Uh, because of uh, the the time period and the Tet Offensive was goin' on, uh, the families of uh, the guys who were still over there never really let anybody know what happened to your friend.

It was always if if you heard anything it was from someone that was in his outfit, or you might have learned it through the Stars and Stripes, which was a paper that was uh, printed for the Vietnam veterans while they were there. And uh, I happened to hear about my friends' deaths quite innocently from uh, a grammar school teacher that...

I uh, I had heard about my, the death of uh...

Start one more time. Keep up. You're dipping in.

I had heard about the death of my uh, four friends uh, quite innocently from a grammar school teacher that had wrote a letter uh, sayin' that she had her kids in her room sayin' a prayer for me and for all the other guys that were over there. And she just happened to mention that she was sorry to hear about the other four guys that uh, from our corner that had gotten killed.

And uh, I wrote home to my parents and asked them what what happened, what's goin' on, that they never said anything about it, and as it turned out they were dead four to five months before I'd even heard about it. And their response was quite natural, is that they didn't want me to be upset. They didn't want me to do anything foolish. Uh, and they were just concerned at that time for me.

Uh, when I did learn of it, it was a, it was a big loss. Uh, you know, these kids – when you grow up on a corner and you get to know the guys and you become brothers. And it was like losing a brother, but you had to keep your your perspective as far as what you had goin' on at the time, and if you kind of let that get to you, you could get hurt yourself.

Plus the fact is that you weren't home to see the grief and the sorrow that was going on with the families, which is the hardest part. So, even though they were gone, you know, you knew in your heart you'd never see them again. But it didn't really hit you as hard because you weren't home to to be with your family and their families.

So, it wasn't actually till I got home and actually back on the corner again with the old crowd that it really really started to sink in that uh Johnny, Joe, Donny and uh, Frankie weren't coming home. It was, it was...it was that simple. But it it didn't hit home till we got home.

And that's how I got involved with the memorial. We uh, we got a group of guys together and we had a memorial mass, and their families were so appreciative of what was actually being done for for them, not so much the guys that had died, but for the families it was important that they know that their friends and the people in the neighborhood miss their sons and still love them. And and I think that's how the memorial got started.

It's that we just wanted to let all the families know in South Boston that uh even though you didn't know every guy individually that's on the stone, he was still from South Boston, he was part of the town, and you just want to let his family know that he is missed and he's loved by all the guys. And, that's how we got started, and uh, as it turned out it was uh, something the parents uh, have come to really appreciate and can feel at ease now that uh, it's here and they have some place to come.

Tell me just one more time a little bit about your growing up here and how you felt about this country when you uh, left high school.

Well...

Not joining the Marines. Just how you felt about this country.

Well, I was...

Cut.

Okay. Here we go. Tell me about yourself...

Well...

...when you graduated from high school and your vision of this country.

I was born and raised in South Boston. Graduated from South Boston High School and joined the Marine Corps in '67. Ah, at that time it w—it was no big thing in this community to join the service, because it was expected of you.

It uh...it was something that's been passed on from fathers and grandfathers and grandfathers uh, to their sons that you at some point in time you did somethin' positive in support of your country – whether you join the service or or get involved somehow. And uh...I graduated from high school, and and the thought of trying to go to school uh...you just uh, joined the Marine Corps. (Chuckling) I don't know how to put it.

Tell us about your background and how you felt about the United States when you graduated from high school.

Well, I uh, I was born and raised in South Boston, joined the Marine Corps when I got out of high school. Uh, my feelings about the involvement of the United States in the time when I joined the Marine Corps was that uh...it was more or less my obligation to join, whether it was the Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, or whatever, to join the service.

Uh, because I joined the Marine Corps I knew more or less I was goin' to Vietnam. There wasn't too much doubt in my mind. Um, but I was honored to go. I mean...how often do you get to do something for this country? I mean, you know, we have all, all, all the great privileges in the world but, I mean, how do you repay someone for, y'know, for lettin' you do something like we're doin' right now, just sittin' here talkin'.

And uh, so I was honored to go, and the uh involvement...uh, whether it was right or wrong, uh...I really don't have any real feelings about it. Uh, I just wanted to serve my country, and where the Marine Corps told me to go I went, and tried to do my best and uh, come home safe to my family, my friends and to the community of South Boston, that uh, I lived in.