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Community Corner

Honoring Woodridge Veterans: Larry Gervais

Gervais, a member of VFW Post 1578, shares his Vietnam War experience with local students.

In honor of Veterans Day on Friday, we'll feature veterans from Woodridge throughout the week. Know a veteran we should recognize? E-mail me at melissat@patch.com

NAME: Larry Gervais

AGE: 64

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MILITARY SERVICE: Army, Vietnam War 

RANK: Infantryman

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FAMILY: Married for 23 years to wife Susan; one son, one daughter, five grandchildren

Larry Gervais was drafted into the Army in 1969 and sent to Vietnam.  He was in an infantry unit that was inserted into the jungle by helicopter for missions that lasted 18 days at a time.

He started out as a point man, the first man in line looking for signs of the enemy.

"It was very scary," Gervais said. "But the thing is being new you don't realize how dangerous a position that is. Of course, once you'd done it once or twice, you realize 'Hey I'm the first guy in line here. This isn't too cool.'" 

He progressed to rifle squad leader, which he said was stressful too.

"You're always worried about the guys that you're in charge of getting wounded or being killed," Gervais said. "Probably the thing that helped a lot of when we were there was the fact that we were young and pretty resilient."

Gervais did not lose a single man and was never injured himself. 

"I had a lot of friends that were wounded; friends that did lose their lives over there," he said. "And I remember them to this day."

He still gets together every year with the members of his platoon.

"It used to be war stories. Now we talk about our grandchildren," said Gervais. "We've kind of played out the war. I think and we're comfortable where we are at. Our focus now is on our guys that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. We want them to get home."

Gervais is a member of the . He said Veterans Day is a special day for him. He thinks it's very important that people understand what veterans do in defense of our country.

"Many of us were involved in combat situations," he said. "It wasn't anything we asked for, but we were told to do. And if you like this country and you like your freedom, occasionally you're going to be doing something to support those freedoms."

Gervais recently retired from teaching art at . But he still goes back every year to talk to social studies classes about the Vietnam War experience.

"It kind of opens their eyes that what you see on the news, it's not always real glorious and neat," he said. "It's good to let the young people know there's a lot more to it than 'Yeah, I'm gonna go out there and slap a magazine into my weapon and just shoot up the jungle.'"

And while it wasn't glamorous going without a shower for 18 days, Gervais wants students to realize it was worth it.

"You couldn't give me a million dollars to do that again," he said.  "And you couldn't give me a million dollars to take that experience away from me and I would never remember it again. It's just one of those lifetime experiences."

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