In celebration of upcoming Veteran’s Day, two honored Andover veterans spoke at this week’s All-School Meeting. They discussed the military tradition of the school and emphasized the importance of not politicizing the service of veterans. The first speaker, Captain John Doherty ’59, attended Harvard University and then entered military service. He is the current Director of Veterans’ Services for the Town of Andover. He served in the Vietnam War as an Assistant G2 Officer for the Southern European Task Force in Verona, Italy from 1964-1965 before being deployed to Vietnam as an Intelligence Officer between 1965 and 1968. Mr. Doherty has been awarded the Bronze Star, four Purple Hearts, and a Republic of Vietnam Medal of Honor. In his lecture, Mr. Doherty emphasized that soldiers do not start the wars, they just fight in them. In Vietnam, Mr. Doherty said, “[He] never served with anyone who started that war or decided how we fought it…As a nation we must divorce politics with military service; the conflicts are not of the soldiers’ making.” The treatment Mr. Doherty and his fellow veterans faced after returning from Vietnam shocked him. According to him, “Many people chose to take out their anger on the soldiers and not at the polls as they should.” Upon returning to Andover, his hometown, Mr. Doherty saw a woman bearing a sign labeled “End the war, bring home the baby killers.” Although the woman told Mr. Doherty not to “take it personally,” the sign offended him deeply. He ended his speech with Herbert Hoover’s statement, “Older men declare war, but it is the youth that must fight and die.” Brigadier General Carlson is a retired member of the MA National Guard. He was a commander of artillery and engineer units, and was selected as Assistant Adjutant General (Army) for the MA National Guard. He received federal recognition as a General Officer in 1986 and retired in 1993 after serving his state and nation for nearly 44 years. The Brigadier General reminded the students of the rich military tradition of PA. Three alumni are recipients of the nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor. The youngest Navy pilot in history and hundreds of other acclaimed veterans are also PA graduates. Brigadier General Carlson focused on the strong military ethic and honor of one alumnus, Tom Hudner ‘43. A pilot fighting in the Korean War, Lieutenant Thomas Hudner flew with his wing of eight planes over Chosin Reservoir in North Korea on December 4, 1950, to protect the American ground troops’ retreat. Suddenly, something hit the plane of ensign Jesse Brown, a fellow pilot. His engine went out, and he was forced to land without power on the rugged mountaintops. In an instant, Hudner made a crucial decision and proceeded to crash-land his plane on the mountain without permission from his commander. He ran over to Brown’s plane to see what state he was in. Hudner struggled to free Brown, but the metal was too thick. Mr. Carlson noted that Hudner and Brown came from very different social backgrounds. Brown was the first black pilot to serve in the U.S. military and the son of a poor sharecropper in Mississippi, while Hudner was the son of a well-off Irish family. Despite these differences, Hudner did the best he could, piling snow on the engine to keep it from lighting the plane on fire. He also kept Mr. Brown warm by giving him his hat and scarf. For his heroism and selflessness, Tom Hudner received the American Medal of Honor. “America needs its defenders, always has, always will,” concluded Brigadier General Carlson, “Look out for yourself by looking out for America.”
