Decades after returning from war, Killingly veterans are welcomed home
Killingly — When Henry Fusco came home from Vietnam, he said people shoved him, spat on him, and even tried to tear his uniform.
In an auditorium at Killingly High School Tuesday evening, Fusco and roughly 60 men and women who served during the Korean and Vietnam wars finally heard the words that had been absent from so many lips when they returned — 'Welcome home.'
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut Veterans Affairs Commissioner Ron Welch and State Sen. Mae Flexer, D-29th District, joined town officials to honor local veterans from the Korean and Vietnam eras with a hero's welcome that was long overdue. It was the latest community that Bysiewicz has visited to honor veterans from past wars.
'Neither group of veterans got the same welcome home compared to the kind of greeting that our World War veterans got,' Bysiewicz said. 'When they came home victorious, there were ticker tape parades, there were celebrations in every town and city across America. And when our Korean veterans came home … they did not get this celebration that their predecessors had gotten in World War II.'
'Our Vietnam veterans faced protests. They were spat upon, they were called unspeakable names,' Bysiewicz continued. 'People had divided opinions about the war, and our country had not yet learned the very important lesson that our Vietnam veterans taught us, which is no matter what you might think of a particular war or the leaders who sent our soldiers there, we must always, always support the men and women who serve our country and who put their lives on the line for the precious freedoms that we have in our country.'
During the ceremony, veterans sat beside their friends and families to share stories of close calls and loved ones lost.
Fusco, who served as a Navy fighter pilot from 1965 to 1975 with the 'World Famous Pukin' Dogs,' spoke of how he barely made it to base after his plane lost its radio capabilities and started to smoke after taking a heavy hit from enemy forces during the Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968.
When he landed, Fusco said, he was met by a cigar-smoking sergeant major who tallied up the damage.
'He stopped every now and then, made a little note on his pad, came all the way around and he said, 'Son, you have 43 holes in that plane. … This plane can't fly,'' Fusco recalled. 'He said 'How did you get here?' I said, 'God was my copilot.''
Others spoke of those they knew who did not make it back.
David Smith served in Saigon in 1964 and in the Army Security Agency in 1965 but he said his 'worst day' in the service happened after he was reassigned to Germany.
'I got a phone call that I had to take … and I was read was a telegram that told me that my brother-in-law, my wife's brother, who was a Marine, had been killed in an ambush,' Smith said. 'He was 19 years old and he's been dead for 60 years and it feels like yesterday.'
This year is the 75th anniversary of the start of the U.S. involvement in the Korean War, which killed more than 36,000 Americans between 1950 and 1953, including 326 from Connecticut.
Next month also marks 60 years since the first U.S. combat forces were deployed to Vietnam. More than 58,000 Americans died in the war, including 612 from Connecticut and two from Killingly.
U.S. Marine Corps Private First Class William Francis Burdick Jr. died on June 9, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. He was 18 years old and less than five months into his tour of duty.
That same year, Richard Paul Graveline, also a private first class in the Marines, died on Sept. 9, 1968, in the Quang Tri Province, eight months into his tour. He was 19 years old.
a.cross@theday.com
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