so years in the military then you had the draft you had volunteers the army drafted they needed people where you could go in for two years the navy air force and marines it was a four year at the time it was a voluntary they call it so i volunteered for the navy and they always said you always have a clean bed and good food and that's true the marine corps there were a little tough you know but  back home and you're a different person i think it was the best thing because a lot of nobody goes in the military take kids don't go in the military you know it's a good thing i can tell people that i meet that i don't even know i bet that i was in the military just from his actions and his respect and his the way he does that and then you got the punks out there that i know they were never in the military in the still punky you know they're used to carry a military bearing as they set a great lakes up in chicago you spent twelve weeks in boot camp and then they put all your stuff together to see what your best qualified to do you know and i was qualified as a heavy equipment operator don't truck bulldozers things like that so i got into the navy seabees which did construction work they built the bases and the facilities in the war zone to get the war going sort of speak and so i spent two years over there in vietnam building move in dirt mix and concrete and then we left there all behind you know that was a day we had to move on and we left that all behind and  i came back here looking for war and that there wasn't much work around the work that was there people already had those jobs the guys that didn't go there they want to college and by the time they got out of college the war was over so they sort of slid through it you know and they grabbed up the good jobs that were available and it was it was tough for a couple years it was really not a lot of work around and you know the people you work for they were exploiting y ou know so i don't know if they're anything to do with being a veteran and i and i think i think that for me it was the opportunity you know i was shown the way looking for a job around here told that well what you did over there it's you know doesn't give you any credit for anything here now you know that's kind of your you had a leg up on right and there's a joke i see on this is not much on guam so i says well we're go back to vietnam for another year i think about that now and say what do you not see it was a war going on over there you know but when you're a kid a young kid you you didn't look at it that way you know you just went did it came home you know one thing that i think about now when we used to go over at the different airports as we were going over there would bring on board he's back in those the stainless steel coffins with the forklift heist the forklift would go in the plane and pull the boy would be like but again you're a young kid you know you think well there ain't go what's called for core that's down down in the soul china sea we built a boat repair facility for rather vietnamese navy we were churning over the war was called vietnamization we're going to teach them how to run their own war so we built them a boat facility a berthing fuel depo and we built this base for them and then as soon as we left and turned it over the vietnamese navy a week later the not like a cold drink of water you couldn't get over the it was they put chlorine in it you're always stays in like bleach water you could never get a graph where i have a cold drink of water from here it always brings me back you know even a latitude same latitude but this year we built we work with vietnamese villagers almost like a peace corps and we trot them how to build a mud block building for a hospital or a school and fix a road and put up some electricity and we taught them trades and we did that for a year because they you know they had no water they never saw plywood they didn't know what things like that were and we try to push that on him and that was our job and they liked us they like this the people liked us more than a lot of maybe military guys that were infantry in more in a war zone we were there but soldiers you know and they would sit out there and have to stand it but yeah we didn't we didn't have any marines we were there were no marines we had some army down the but they had their own their own stuff we  or what have you well we got where i got it i got a book at home bill also for building bridges and villages and towns like that the of the small the enemy's villages of the world would wash out and they have no way to get back and for we come in with the bulldozers and bring up some earth and throw some stone on the middle of this the people loved us you know everybody even the vietcong loved us because we built the base and then after we built it and we left it come and take it so they never really know not like the big guys with them all on the chair i was in the on the seat it seems nowadays and there's a lot of ribbons out there so yeah right but people don't i don't know how people you you mention you volunteered to go back and i think a big difference in today's world is that you know in vietnam you basically if you want to go back again the good take you back but there was no no nd tour was the road to was for two like now it is now you know we'll see that yeah they never it never really really good and then i got away from it i kind of went off on my own and just became self employed and kind of didn't have too much to do with the government with the stablish when i was of like on my own where there were no more many controls on me and i made a live and i made a living on my own so maybe these guys a push me away for joy was better off and i became my own man you know and to this day i see these people you know that i ask work for and they kind of like you know i see them and then they remember and have but i don't say nothing to them in the in the end gerri are for happy if that's ok that's seventy's i'm going to count on my hands pretty sure there was seven altogether they see back in those days everybody were unless you were really you know disabled for something but and then to people they been so big or you remember that the when you got drafted in world war two you were in for the duration of the war plus six months yeah you didn't you didn't come home till it was done right yeah  you're involved in the memorial that we're working on here right now in belmont veterans memorial you want to tell some folks about that all on our work or you know what we're putting together a centralized memorial for all war it for belmont the veterans the people families the way it is now is memorial scattered around the town at different locations and most people don't even know what they are when they are we want to consolidate i in a package that people can see it and recognize it and get the whole picture in one place high school yesterday in of lived here my whole life total i moved out to hit but with this interview these interviews i guess you know i mean it's going to wake people up more people that know we can use some financial support and put this together you know i know from every original ever you know and moved over here in fifty eight and i got some i like to tell you about my family history this would be that people get a kick out of it my mother was from ever tt my father was from belmont during the war they were building the battleship massachusetts in quincy for river shipyard in quincy my my father was a pipefitter he got a job as a pipefitter my mother had a job as a welder and they worked on the battleship mass troops and that's where they met and then my father got drafted i guess they finished the ship my father got drafted he went off and then when he came home to my mother who cooked up and got married and here's something for you the battleship massachusetts is the only ship named after the state that it was built in like the iowa definitely wasn't built in iowa ok so the battleship massachusetts the only ship built in the state named for the state it was built in wow ok that's that's fantastic that's my mother and father that's how they got together from the war yet it's interesting you say your mother you know people all realize that how many oh how many women wherever it was they were