ROBERT VINSON • VIETNAM WAR
Robert Vinson, 78
Rockport, MA
Born 3/12/1947
Born/Raised: Belmont, MA
Service: US Army, 101st Airborne
Rank: Captain
Dates of Service: 1967-1973
Commendations: Air Medal “V” device for Valor
Raised a devout Catholic in Belmont, MA, Robert Vinson nearly followed a path that would lead him to a monastic life with the Passionists. “I loved the seminary. I loved the monastic life,” but it was 1966 and a year into his training, he realized he needed to get out into the world. He applied for and was accepted to Boston College, but that too wasn’t the right fit, “I hated it.” In 1967, he joined the US Army and after taking one of their entrance exams, he was immediately put on the path to become a helicopter pilot. Before shipping off to basic training, he had never even been on an airplane.
Bob was the third child of nine (three brothers and five sisters) born to John & Louise Vinson in Belmont. His father worked at Standard Thomson in Waltham for 48 years and finished as a supervisor. Bob attended St. Mary’s H.S. in Waltham and graduated in 1965. His brother John was serving in the Navy in Vietnam and his sense of service helped steer him towards the military. His first stop was Fort Polk in Louisiana, a “hell-hole” where “the drill sergeant hated me. I learned a lot about pushups.” Eventually he went to flight school in Texas and helicopter school in Alabama where he learned to fly Hueys. He completed his helicopter training at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was assigned to a new helicopter division with the 101st Airborne – the 158th Aviation Battalion and shipped off to Camp Evans airbase in Vietnam in January 1969.
He spent six months as a helicopter pilot, including flying soldiers and ammunition into hot landing zones and taking out the wounded and dead. He flew during the storied Hamburger Hill battle in the Ashau Valley where scores of American and S. Vietnamese troops were killed, and nearly 400 wounded. Bob recalls that two days in a row, the helicopters in front and behind him were both shot down. Of the 20 helicopters in his company, five were lost in those two days and three pilots killed. He was awarded the Air Medal with a “V” device for valor for rescuing eight crew members under fire.
Flying his helicopter wasn’t the only service he was drawn towards; he also made time for more civilian-friendly outreach. He noted that there were precious few schools and medical dispensaries available to civilians in the area, so he, somewhat clandestinely at first, “I begged, borrowed and stole” materials like cement and lumber, to begin helping the locals in the Huong Dien District build new facilities. Six months into his tour, the Army recognized the benefits of Bob’s efforts and transferred him full-time to S5, or civil affairs and pacification, to continue his work with locals rebuilding schools and medical facilities. He received a direct commission from Chief Warran Officer to 1st Lieutenant just before he left Vietnam. His story was told in a 1970 Reader’s Digest article.
When his year was up, he returned home a lieutenant and was sent to Infantry School, then joined the National Guard and attended Advanced Infantry Training. By then however he knew he wasn’t going to stay in the military. He left and went to UMass Amherst in pursuit of a degree in sociology. “I loved it.” Bob eventually earned a Master’s degree in management of human services from Brandeis University Heller School. His career in service continued when he went to work for a housing and human services non-profit in Haverhill and then Goodwill Industries.
Married twice before his current marriage, Bob met and started dating Andrea Coates in the mid 1990s. While Bob was on a 1200-mile biking trip from Hanoi to Saigon in 1997, Andrea flew to Vietnam because she knew the trek might be very emotionally challenging. It was challenging but he also found the trip very healing, helping him deal with the emotional scars of his combat tour in Vietnam. “She came halfway around the world to be with me for less than 24 hours. I knew she was a keeper.” Bob proposed, she accepted. They married in 1997. They have one son, Samuel Peter, “the love of my life.”
For the past 35 years, Bob has worked as a massage therapist. During those same years he has volunteered with the Pan Mass Challenge Cancer Ride organizing volunteer massage therapist for the riders. Bob has lived in Rockport for thirty years.