CHARLES WILLIAMSON • VIETNAM WAR
Charles Williamson, 80
Gloucester, MA
Born: 5/14/45
Born/Raised: Gloucester
Service: US Army
Rank: E-4
Dates of Service: 1966-1969
Charles Williamson was born the son of a waitress, Susan (Hadley) and a painter, Charlie, and lived on School Street as a child. His parents divorced and mom married Harold Morrow. He had a brother, Daniel, who died as a baby. He graduated from Gloucester High School in 1965 and went to work for National Advertised Foods, a wholesale food business.
In October 1966, he enlisted in the US Army and after basic training at Fort Dix, and further training in Fort Lee, Virginia with the Quartermaster/Heavy equipment repair, he was sent to Camp Charn Sinthope near Phanom Sarakham in Thailand with the 809th Engineering Battalion.
He spent his time there keeping the batteries charged and the lights on at the generator pad, though one day he found himself awkwardly situated between a Master Sergeant and the base Commanding Officer. The MSgt. ordered him to boost the power so that his television would work and in doing so, the surging power accidentally blew out the CO’s stereo.
He came home from Thailand and while on leave before his next posting with the 809th Engineering Battalion at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, he married his high school sweetheart, Lois Parsons. He was able to secure housing off base and Lois’s parents packed her up in their brand-new Nova and drove her out to join Charles. They returned to Gloucester in 1969 and Charles took a job at a Topsfield grocery store where he worked for a couple of years.
He then took a job with Stop & Shop where he worked for forty years, thirty in Beverly and ten in Gloucester as the night crew chief. Lois worked in the billing department at Addison Gilbert Hospital and the couple have two children, Christopher and Tammy, and two grandchildren.