JOHN LAURIE • VIETNAM
John Laurie, 78
Gloucester, MA
Born: 6/8/1947
Born/Raised: Gloucester
Service: US Army
Rank: E-4, Medic
Unit: B-Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry,
198th Light Infantry & 23rd Medical Battalion
Chu Lai, Vietnam
Dates of Service: 1966-1968
Recipient: Bronze Star with Valor 12/9/1967
“Sometimes I wonder if it was real, but it was real.”
John Laurie was drafted into the Army in 1966 and served as a medic until his discharge in September of 1968. The son of Mary and Donald Laurie, himself a WWII veteran who served in the Pacific, John is the oldest of five siblings: three sisters and a brother and grew up on Trask Street. He graduated from Gloucester High School in 1965.
He began his service at Fort Hood before being transferred to Ft. Sam Houston for medic training and eventual assignment to B Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry of the 198th Light Infantry. His entire brigade of 5200 men were shipped out on two transports out of Oakland to his post in Chu Lai, Vietnam. He spent six months in-country, on patrol with his infantry unit, before being assigned to the 23rd Medical Battalion for six months. “That was mind blowing. That’s where I really learned to respect Army nurses. They’re the most wonderful people on earth.”
On December 9th, 1967, while on patrol, running through a rice paddy, he and his unit were ambushed. John turned back, along with another soldier and rushed to pull a fallen comrade from the paddy and evacuated him by helicopter. Sadly, that soldier was KIA. John was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor for his actions.
On his return to Gloucester, he would continue his first responder identity as a Gloucester firefighter starting in 1971, a position he’d hold until 1992 when he retired. Simultaneous to being a firefighter, John worked as a longshoreman on the Gloucester waterfront. He’s photographed with a “jungle postcard,” cardboard ripped from a C-ration box and sent to his mother, Mary.
John was married and has a stepson, John Laine. He continues to live in Gloucester.