BERTRAM ELLIS • VIETNAM WAR
Bertram Ellis, 77
Gloucester, MA
Born 9/3/1948
Born/Raised: Gloucester, MA
Service: US Marine Corps
Unit: 1st & 3rd Marines
Rank: E-5 (Sergeant)
Dates of Service: 1967-1973
Citations: Purple Heart
Bertram Ellis was born at Addison Gilbert Hospital when his family lived on Spring Street. His mother Alice Ellis was a fish cutter and packer at Gorton’s and his father Arnold worked maintenance at the Atlantic Gelatin plant in Woburn. He had three brothers and two sisters and was, but one, the baby of the family. He grew up in Gloucester and attended GHS in the vocational program, “most of the time,” studying carpentry and welding. Like all boys his age, he was in the ROTC program, Company F, and rose to the rank of captain. “I’ve always been patriotic.”
After graduating in 1966, he took a job at Modern Heat working with sheet metal. In 1967 he enlisted in the Marines and by May he was working himself f through Parris Island and Camp Lejeune before Camp Pendleton, Okinawa and eventually Da Nang in Vietnam with the 1st Marines. He spent his time through the beginning of the Tet offensive working in the motor pool and running resupply missions to southern bases. In early 1968 Bertram volunteered to go to Dong Ha with the 3rd Marines where he ran supply missions to all the bases along the DMZ.
On the return from one of those resupply missions, Bertram suffered shrapnel wounds to his neck and hands during an ambush. He was rushed to a field hospital where he as patched up and nearly immediately returned to service. In June 1969 he was awarded the Purple Heart for his injuries. By May the following year, in 1970, the Marines returned him stateside to Quantico, Virginia.
After working in the motor pool and hauling tanks onto the training firing range at Quantico, Bertram left the Marines in 1973 and came home to Gloucester and his job at Modern Heat.
When it comes to matters of the heart, Bertram describes himself as “a hard learner,” but despite five marriages and 13 children and step-children, perhaps things work out the way they’re meant to in the end. He met his current wife of five years, Elizabeth, back in seventh grade when they first became childhood sweethearts. They had planned to get married after he returned from Vietnam, but by then their relationship had moved on. They reconnected five years ago and picked up where they left off.
Bertram retired at 62 and whenever he can he serves as a member of the honor guard, including one that served at the 10-year anniversary wreath laying at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC.