Tom Berton, a Vietnam-era veteran from Secaucus, gave some sage advice to students at All Saints Catholic Academy in Bayonne during the school’s recent Veterans Day commemoration: “If you see a veteran on the street, go up to him, shake his hand, and thank him.”
Berton, who served two years in the U.S. Army, appeared at the school along with fellow Secaucus veteran Joe Di Martini to talk about their experiences as veterans.
Di Martini served in the U.S. Marines during World War II in the South Pacific campaign, and both veterans received a standing ovation as students showed their respect.
Berton said veterans do not get the respect they deserve, and that the modern military often goes back to a war zone three or four times. This includes the National Guard, he said.
The students are collecting items for care packages.
____________
Berton recalled his coming back to the United States after his service overseas and seeing the protestors when he landed in San Francisco.
“They called us ‘women killers’ and ‘baby killers,’ ” he said, recalling protestors throwing things at the troops.
Berton talked to the students about the draft, which once required young men to serve for two years, and said that he believed the draft should have been continued.
“This is the reason why the National Guard has to keep going back,” he said, noting that during Vietnam, drafted soldiers were only required to go to a war zone for 12 months.
Di Martini said in World War II, soldiers served for as long as the military needed them. He said he had enlisted because he felt his country needed him.
Went as teenagers
Both men were 18 years old when they went into the military, they said.
When asked if he was scared, Berton said yes. In response to another question, he said the training was hard, but each soldier later learned that it was necessary so that they could survive.
Both men said they were proud to have served their country, and answered a variety of questions from the students as to what weapons they carried, had they flown on helicopters, and whether women had served in the military in their time as they do now.
Berton said most of the women serving during the 1960s belonged to the nurses’ corps.
“God bless them; they were the best,” he said.
Di Martini said women did serve in the U.S. Marines during World War II.
“They did a good job,” he said.
Students asked about soldiers missing in action. Berton said some were recovered when troops were released from prisoner-of-war camps after the conclusion of the Vietnam War, but many are still unaccounted for, including Douglas O’Neill from Bayonne.
Di Martini said World War II had many prisoners of war and many missing, which is not something well-known.
All Saints Principal Joseph Moran told the students that there was a lesson to be learned in these accounts, how young people not too much older than themselves went into service, losing complete control of their own lives – eating when they were told to eat, sleeping when they were told to sleep, going where they were told to go. He called the veterans remarkable people who, although frightened, still did what they had to do.
Gabby Fortune, a student at All Saints, brought to the ceremony her grandfather’s Purple Heart – something awarded to an American service person who is wounded in action. She said he served in Vietnam in late 1967, and he sometimes talks about his experiences.
How to help the troops
Minutes before All Saints Catholic Academy’s Veterans Day commemoration, Mary Cole rushed in carrying a flag sent by a local man, Father Ed Gorman. The flag had flown over a base in Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2011, where Gorman, a Navy chaplain, served with the U.S. Marines.
“Father Gorman is the school’s spiritual mentor,” Cole explained, setting the flag and the accompanying certificate down on a table filled with patriotic mementos on display.
Although Father Gorman has previously served as pastor of St. Catherine of Siena in New York and St. Catherine of Siena in Nairobi, Kenya, and had taught chemistry in Arusha, Tanzania, and Kisumu, Kenya, he is best known locally for teaching physics at Marist High School in Bayonne and serving at Sacred Heart Parish in Jersey City. A member of the Dominican order, Gorman volunteered to serve in the military chaplaincy after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. During his most recent tour of duty, he accompanied the U.S. Marines in dangerous Eastern Afghanistan.
Cole said children at All Saints Catholic Academy are collecting items Father Gorman requested, care packages that include such things as baby wipes, hard candy, hand sanitizers, and more. The real need for the project is the cost of shipping.
“The students can collect the items, but the postage to send them costs a lot,” she said, and that donations from the community would be helpful.