RALPH FATELLO • VIETNAM WAR
Ralph Fatello, 74
Hampton, NH
Born: 7/26/1951
Born/Raised: Lynn/Beverly
Service: US Marine Corps
Rank: Lance Corporal
Unit: Fox Co. 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines 3rd MarDiv
Dates of Service: 1969-1971
In 1968 a Marine recruiter came to Beverly High School where Ralph Fatello was a senior. Hearing that Ralph was a talented artist, the recruiter promised that he would become a combat artist and that’s all Ralph needed to know. At 17, he had to get his parents, Gus and Eva, to sign his pre-enlistment papers. “My dad and all my uncles served in WWII.”
At Parris Island during basic, he became a “mouse” for a gunnery sergeant. “I’m just going along for the ride. I didn’t care because I was going to be an artist.” On the day that he needed to qualify on the rifle range he noticed his rifle coach had a large meatball sub. His gunnery sergeant told him that if he shot ‘expert’, he’d get the sub. He did, and he did, but that changed his direction dramatically. On the day he graduated he learned he wasn’t going to be an artist for the Marines, “we don’t want you drawing pictures if you can shoot like that” they told him.
He became a squad leader operating out of Camp Carroll in Dong Ha near the DMZ with North Vietnam. Every couple of weeks he and his squad would fly out to the USS Okinawa for some recuperation. The first time he saw the flight deck of the ship he thought that if he had a skateboard, he could ride it. He wrote to his dad who sent the skateboard, and one day, during a typhoon when he was supposed to be in his rack, he went to the ship’s deck and made one pass. “It was awful.” The skateboard was confiscated, and he thought he was going to be court martialed.
When it came his time to go home in 1970, his lieutenant pulled out the confiscated skateboard and all the guys in his squad signed it. “Nobody got killed in my squad. My squad all made it back.”
On his return to Massachusetts, he attended the Art Institute of Boston, graduating in 1974. This would lead to a career as an artist at various newspapers and advertising agencies. He worked for the Gloucester Daily Times from 1984-1987.
In addition to art, Ralph was heavily involved in the Boston punk and New Wave music scene as a member of The Vinny Band, opening for the Police their very first night in Boston as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was also singer, song writer and guitar player in bands Semper Fi and The Nor’Easters.
He met his wife Cory at a club in Boston and the couple have three kids and five grandchildren. In 1990 they moved to Hampton, NH, “I’m a surfer. It’s huge in my life. When I came back from ‘Nam, surfing saved my life.”