ARTHUR CHURCHILL • VIETNAM WAR
Arthur “Artie” Churchill, 76
Gloucester, MA
Born 4/22/1949
Born/Raised: Gloucester, MA
Service: US Navy
Rank: EM3 (Electrician’s Mate)
Dates of Service: 1968-1971
The Riverdale Park son of a Gloucester police officer and both World Wars Navy veteran Everett Roderick Churchill and Boston ‘Southie’ Marie Coughlin, Artie Churchill was well schooled in military life. His two brothers Ernest and Joseph also served in the Navy. The 1967 Gloucester High School graduate initially wanted to join the Marines, but the pull to the Navy was too strong, so when he went to enlist, it was the Navy that won out.
The Navy asked him for a wish list of where he’d like to serve and on the bottom of that list was submarine school. So, of course, that’s where they sent him. He began his training at the Great Lakes Chicago Training Center. About seven weeks in he decided being under water for extended periods wasn’t for him and was assigned to the USS Severn (AO-61) a refueling vessel that primarily serviced aircraft carriers. When not on board the ship he toured Italy, Spain and Greece. His two-year service was primarily in the Mediterranean ending with a disability discharge in 1971.
He returned to Gloucester and got a job as a laborer for Ocean Crest Seafood and in 1971 married the boss’s daughter, Maria Parco, whom he had dated in high school. They’ve been married for 54 years. Eventually he took a job with the Gloucester DPW working in the sewer and water treatment department becoming a licensed operator. He worked for the City of Gloucester for 20 years before doing similar work in both the private sector and Essex for another 18 years.
The couple have two children, Jonathan Churchill and Elizabeth Moran, and six grandchildren. Maria worked at The Gloucester House as a waitress before becoming treasurer of two family businesses, Ocean Crest Seafood and Neptune’s Harvest. Artie spends his time now watching his grandkids play sports, golfing and fishing. “I always had someone looking out for me wherever I went.”