Vietnam Veteran, John Collier
Collier with Vietnamese family
Veterans Day: One Vietnam Vet’s Story By Steve York
“The day I reported for action in Vietnam, a soldier at the check-in desk said, ‘Are you Collier?’ When I said yes, he grimly advised, ‘They just shot Kennedy!’”
T
hat was November 22, 1963. And that was Banner Elk’s own Retired Lieutenant Colonel John Collier. It was his first stint in Vietnam. But it wouldn’t be his last. “It was a pretty depressing start for my Vietnam service and a shock for me and anyone serving over there in late 1963,” Collier added in his unmistakably native Massachusetts accent. No doubt the shared home state of Collier and President Kennedy may also have added a sharp sting to that already tragic news. Kennedy had just increased the U.S. military commitment to that war in hopes of defeating the North Vietnamese and bringing an end to the conflict without excessive delay. So, to have a soldier’s Commander-in-Chief slain halfway around the world in the assumed sanctuary of the United States of America could not have been more unsettling for military forces in the process of amping up their combat role in Vietnam.
82 — Autumn 2021 CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE
In hindsight, it doesn’t escape some note of tragic irony that Veterans Day falls on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of each year and that the fateful date of Kennedy’s assassination, November 22, was exactly eleven days following Veterans Day back in 1963. This national holiday to honor U.S. veterans initially began in 1919 as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I, which occurred on November 11, 1918. Following World War II and the Korean War, the United States 83rd Congress amended the Armistice Day Act of 1938 changing the word Armistice to Veterans. And, in 1954, Veterans Day officially became a national holiday to honor the military service of all U.S. veterans of all wars. For Vietnam Vets like Collier, Veterans Day comes with its own unique scrapbook of memories, both heroic and tragic. Collier’s personal scrapbook of photos, books, newspaper articles, historic records and archived video references literally spills across the top of his kitchen table and fills nearby bookcases. And his life story, which set the course for his eventual service in Vietnam, is as fascinating as his Irish-rooted New England wit and story-telling charm. John Francis Collier was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, in 1934 as the
middle child in a family of five. Four years later his mother died at the young age of 29 and, soon after, his father found himself unable to care for the children. So, the five kids were forced to become wards of the Commonwealth. In 1946, after being shuffled around nine different foster homes, Collier was reunited with his two younger brothers, Bob and George, when they came to live in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown with a caring foster family named Flynn. But growing up a poor foster kid in a tough neighborhood like Charlestown meant you had to learn how to fight and stand up for yourself. Collier joined the local Boys Club, took up boxing and, later, the Club’s swim team. It was his swimming skills that helped him become accepted at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. And it was at Bowdoin that Collier entered the school’s Army ROTC program. ROTC led Collier to the Army Basic Infantry Officers Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, following college graduation. From there, he rose up in ranks, gaining respect and recognition from his commanding officers and—as destiny would have it—found himself in Vietnam on that fateful day of November 22, 1963.
