A high school recruiter persuaded Charles Williams to consider Dartmouth. He attended with full NROTC scholarship. Post graduation he and Ned Miller attended flight training school as Marines, where he became an F4 Phantom pilot. He flew 125 bombing missions over North Viet Nam, which required challenging nighttime mid-air refueling. Several months into his tour, he was injured by a rocket while holed up in a bunker at Chu Lai. Half of his buddies were killed and he suffered serious injuries. He recovered, received an MBA and had three successful business careers. Retired since 1994, he has two sons and a daughter. He's a skilled duplicate bridge player, recently relocated to La Quinta, CA with his wife Jerrilynn.
Jim Laughlin finished law school before entering the Army to complete his ROTC commitment. For three months through the Tet offensive he interrogated prisoners in Bien Hoa, which he felt produced little valuable information. Transferred to Can Tho he was responsible for planning, implementing and executing aerial reconnaissance in the Mekong Delta - he participated in 77 missions. On return he developed a private law practice in business, real estate and tax planning. He's quite proud of a low income senior citizen housing project he developed with some partners. His wife Pam is a retired teacher. They have three sons, James '94, Andrew and Mark and three grandchildren. He's active in the Dartmouth Club of Central Florida and has taken two Dartmouth Tours.
As an immigrant Ivars Bemberis expressed his patriotism by joining the Army ROTC program, completing degrees in environmental and chemical engineering, then ultimately serving in Viet Nam in a civil affairs unit trying to win the hearts and minds of the locals. He saw no progress over 8 months of 'protecting' nomadic Montanards by interning them in 'tin city'. On another assignment he found that the local government wanted soldiers to do everything, but nothing themselves. Ivars successfully established bridges with immigrant Chinese and Indians. He didn't expect a ticker-tape parade on return, but remembers that it took 40 years before anyone said 'thank you'. His wife Jeannette, a retired science teacher, noted that it took 8 years for Ivars to recover. They have a son Scott and a daughter Kimberly '91.
To all who served, a belated 'Thank You'.