WALTER MARSHALL RICH • VIETNAM WAR
Walter Marshall Rich, 77
Essex, MA
Born: September 26, 1948
Born/Raised: Ipswich/Rockport, MA
Service: US Navy
Rank: Petty Officer 2nd Class
Ship: USS Shangri La
Dates of Service: 1968-1972
Walter Rich was the son of lobsterman and firefighter Walter G. and Jean (Cogswell) Rich, of Essex. His father was a WWII veteran who served in Belgium as a motor-pool mechanic after landing on Omaha Beach in the days following DDay. He has a sister, Ethyl Carlson and a brother James Rich. He was raised in Rockport and graduated from Rockport H.S. in 1966. He went on to study as a machinist at Beverly Trade School for two years.
He and his friend Kerry Sullivan decided to join the Navy under the Buddy System. Both had deferments until they finished school, but Kerry lost his and ended up being drafted into the Army instead. Rich continued with his enlistment into the Navy. Already trained as a machinist, the Navy sent him to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to join the crew of the aircraft carrier, USS Shangri-La.
Walter spent two years and ten months aboard the Shangri-La. The first cruise sent the carrier to the Mediterranean for seven months. Following that deployment, the ship was sent to Vietnam where it spent nine months off the coast of Vietnam providing air support for F8 Crusaders and A4 Sky Hawks. Then, various stops in Subick Bay, Philippines and Japan, the ship eventually circumnavigated the globe and returned to its homeport in Jacksonville, FL. The Shangri-La was then moved to Boston where it was decommissioned and mothballed.
After returning from the Mediterranean in 1969, Walter was granted two weeks leave so he headed home to Rockport to visit friends. On Front Beach, he met a nursing student from Connecticut, Sally Ann Bashiloff. They carried on a long-distance relationship and married on July 3, 1971.
After the Shangri-La was decommissioned, Walter was assigned to a sub tender in Holy Loch, Scotland repairing submarines. He was able to find a small cottage in the local village and the Navy allowed him to bring his new bride to join him “for the best year of their lives.” They’ve now been married for 54 years and have two children, Benjamin Rich and Jessica Murphy, and four grandchildren, Jack, Claire, Jonathan and Charlotte.
Two weeks after he left the Navy in 1972, he enrolled at Wentworth Institute of Technology and, two-years later, received an AA in Building Construction. He worked for four years in Rockport before joining up with a friend and fellow student, Bradley Johnson, to form Johnson & Rich Construction in Essex in 1977. Walter retired from the company in 2019 after 42 years. He now spends a lot of time with his grandchildren and does the odd job of construction.