Veterans have different stories, shared experiences

The stories may be different. But, the experiences are shared.

Some may have spent just a few years in the armed forces. Others, nearly a lifetime.

But veterans at the Havelock Veterans of Foreign Wars post agree that they wouldn't trade those experiences - nor the camaraderie with other service members - for anything.

"Ít's the camaraderie," said C.J. McQueen, 73, of Carolina Pines, a retired master gunnery sergeant.

"We get together a couple of times a week. I guess we've told the same stories to each other over and over. They get better each time."

McQueen, who was in the Marine Corps from 1953 to 1979 and did three tours in Vietnam, said the bond formed in battle continues today.

"I don't think there's anybody in here that wouldn't come to the aid of one of the others," he said.

Allen Berndt, 71, was in the Marine Corps from 1957 to 1987. He said he was involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961 and did tours in Vietnam in 1964, '65, '68 and '69.

"Most of us have known each other for 40 years," Berndt said. "We've had a good camaraderie here."

He said there is immense respect among veterans.

"We've been to combat together," Berndt said.

Even though he might not have fought alongside younger Marines, he still identifies with them.

"We care about them," Berndt said. "A lot of them will listen because they know that we've been through it. It was just a different war and a different situation."

Leo Brandenburg, 78, of Carolina Pines, retired in 1979 after more than 33 years in the Marine Corps. He served in Korea in 1953 and '55 and in Vietnam in 1966 and '67.

"Everybody worked together. Teamwork is what did it," said Brandenburg, a retired major. "As long as you were busy, you never had any problems."

Brandenburg's sharpest memory of Korea was the cold. He worked in aviation ordnance, loading ammu-

nition on F9F Panther jet fighters.

"Christ, we used to have what they called belly pans," he said. "You'd have to get up at 3 a.m. to load the ammo, and by the time you got finished, you thought your hands were going to fall off. We were continually told to watch your frostbitten hands.

"We didn't have exactly the best cold weather gear, but we had a roof over our heads in the barracks with a pot-bellied stove. The guys in the field, they had it really rough."

Yeoman First Class Elizabeth Burke, 84, was in the Navy from 1944 to 1946 working in the Bureau of Personnel in Washington. She checked records to make sure officers were eligible for promotions.

Burke said her service changed her life.

"I think it kind of opened me up to meeting people," she said. "We had a good time even though it was a war time."

The service had a big impact on Brandenburg, too.

"I grew up a lot," he said. "I had wasted a couple of years in college playing around.

"In the Marine Corps, I learned a lot from different people about different things in life. I re-enlisted because of it."

The service also changed Berndt's life "big time."

"I was an old farm boy with snow up to my eyes and milking cows," Berndt said.

McQueen said the Marine Corps improved his life.

"I was born and raised in southern Mississippi and never had been out of that state, so when I joined the Marine Corps it gave me a better outlook on life," he said. "And it improved my education because I came from a single-parent family. In the Corps, I took high school and college courses."

Burke said service in the military should be mandatory for young men.

"It would be very good for the generation now," she said. "They have no morals and they have no character. They need to be taught some discipline."

Berndt said it is sometimes hard for members of the civilian world to connect with military personnel.

"They have no idea what the troops go through," Berndt said. "You've got to go into the military to understand what we're talking about."

McQueen said the people he met during his military service have stayed with him his entire life.

"There is a good friend of mine who is still alive. He's dying of cancer now from Agent Orange," McQueen said. "He got the Navy Marine Corps Medal for saving me."

That savior was Ernie Howe, a staff sergeant.

McQueen survived a crash of a KC-130 transport plane in Hong Kong Harbor on Aug. 24, 1965. Howe rescued him from the wreckage. McQueen, a flight engineer on the plane, said the crash killed 57 people.

"I spent 10 months in the hospital with burns and a broken left arm," he said.

Years later, the memories of the crash and his recovery make him emotional.

"You deal with it as you go," he said. "I still deal with it every day. You blame yourself a lot."

Only his fellow veterans can empathize.

But, they tend not to dwell on such events.

"We talk about the good times. We don't talk about the bad things," McQueen said.

"You've got to have a sense of humor and use that," Berndt said.

And remember the good times.

"It's been a good life really," Berndt said. "I have really enjoyed my Corps time.

"We had active time, but we never stop being in the Marine Corps. A lot of people don't understand that."

Settling in Havelock, with its large military citizenry, is something all the veterans have enjoyed.

"Where else could I be happy?" Berndt said. "I've known all these guys for a lot of years."

"We came from all across the United States," McQueen said. "Most of us have kids that went to school here. It's a good area to live in."

And a good life, they say.

"I think the epitaph is that if we all had it to do over again," McQueen said, "we'd do it all and with the same people."