Brian Vesper never thought that he would outdo his father’s multiple service stints in the armed forces. After all, the elder Vesper, a World War II Navy veteran, joined the Army after learning that he would become father to twins Brian and Barbara.

But Vesper, 60, who now works for the state of Vermont as a local Veteran’s Employment Representative, can now look back on a career that began in the Navy during the Vietnam War, continued in the Air Force and the first Gulf War, and ended in the Army during the Iraq War.

Brian Vesper outside the state office complex in Bennington, where he has worked for the last two decades as the local Vetrans’ Employment Representative. Photo courtesy of Telly Kalkias.

“It’s really strange how those things work out, because I don’t think you can plan that kind of a career path,” Vesper said. “I’ve always been involved with veterans’ affairs. With the reserves and National Guard you can keep serving as long as there is a need for your skills. It’s been very rewarding.”

From Seattle to Vermont

Vesper’s odyssey started in his birthplace of Seattle, Wash. Both his parents had joined the Navy, met during World War II and later married in his mother’s hometown of West Roxbury, Mass. The family of eight ended up in South Boston, Mass. for his father’s first Army tour as a court reporter.

Living the life of an Army “brat,”in 1952 Vesper’s family moved to Fort DeRussy in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time, Hawaii was still a U.S. territory and Vesper and his siblings were taught by missionary nuns, the Maryknoll Sisters. Fort DeRussy has been converted to a museum and national park.

In 1957 the Vespers came home to New England at Fort Devens, Mass., to be closer to his maternal grandmother. Several years later, his father retired from the Army, which precipitated the family’s move to Vermont.

“My father worked as a federal court reporter for the former Governor, Judge Ernest Gibson, first in Burlington and finally in Brattleboro,” Vesper said. “I graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 1967. After a year of college at New Mexico State University, I enlisted in the Navy.”

Swabbie To Zoomie

Vesper attended basic training at Camp Nimitz in San Diego, Calif. He was assigned to the U.S.S. Kennebec, an oil tanker on which he served from May 1969 to June 1970. The ship saw duty in several Southeast Asia hotspots to include the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War and the South China Sea. It earned a reprieve from fueling operations several times during his first of three combat tours.

“We were able to take shore leave in Hong Kong for five days and again later in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for another five days during the war,” Vesper said. “After that year, we returned to home port in San Francisco. We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, past Ghirardelli Square and I swear we could smell that wonderful chocolate and even almost taste it. We thought we saw mermaids, too but when you’re out to sea for so long, anything is possible.”

Later that year, Vesper attended school to become a hospital corpsman, or medic. He had “so much fun my grades at school were less than average and the Navy sent me back to the fleet.” Vesper was assigned to another jumbo oil tanker, the U.S.S. Manatee. Before moving back to Vermont, he served two more tours in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin until February of 1973.

“Refueling operations can very hazardous, especially in rough weather or when under attack,” Vesper said. “We refueled everything from aircraft carriers to hospital ships, and just carrying all that petroleum was dangerous. We were fortunate in some instances not to have had more injuries or fatalities.”

One such instance involved Vesper and two of his shipmates attempting to relieve the stress of combat sea duty. He said that the three sailors went to the aft of the ship in rough seas when the swells were at their peak.

“When we timed it just right, we’d jump just as the ship was going down and it seemed as if we were suspended in air with our arms and legs flailing around and we reached heights as tall as the stack deck,” Vesper said. “Then the ship would come back up as we were coming back down.”

But all did not go as planned. Vesper recalled that as he descended from his final jump the ship below him moved quickly down and then to port. He landed next to the starboard railing, three of four inches from going overboard.

“I clung to that railing for a few minutes realizing that had I gone overboard, I’d have been lost,” Vesper said. “The Manatee would have had to continue through the storm and not risk the safety of everyone onboard.”

After his third Vietnam tour, Vesper was honorably discharged from the Navy as a Petty Officer Third Class. In late1974, Vesper joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Mass., and was assigned to the 74th Aero Medical Evacuation Squadron. He served as a flight medical technician on a C-130 Hercules.

In the meantime, in 1980, Vesper moved from Rutland to Shaftsbury, where he worked as a Vermont State Police dispatcher for eight years. He was activated during the first Gulf War in the 436th Combat Support Group and was preparing to deploy to Kuwait in May 1991 when the war ended.

During the latter part of his Air Force stint, Vesper and his family moved to Bennington. In 1993, he retired as a Master Sergeant after 18 years in the Air Force.

Grunt And Beyond

During this period, Vesper had begun his career with the state in 1989, where he remains to this day as an advocate for veterans and their families. However, even though retired from the service, it wasn’t long before he got the urge to contribute his years of expertise.

“I’m not sure what possessed me to come out of retired reserves to join the Vermont Army National Guard but I think now it was my late mother,” Vesper said. “I have her veteran’s burial flag and it reminded me of her unselfish service.

“I enlisted for six years in 2000. Less than one year later, I was training at Fort Drum, N.Y. I’ll never forget that day, September 11, 2001. Fort Drum was locked down and Blackhawk helicopters filled the skies.”

At the time, Vesper was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 172nd Armor Regiment in Bennington. He was not designated for deployment, but remained at the Armory and worked with the Community Soldiers Family Support Group. The organization was charged with raising funds from the community to support families with emergencies until all the troops came home in 2006.

On February, 11 2008, Brian Vesper, the former sailor, airman and soldier retired from the Armed Forces one final time. Today, he continues his work with the state on behalf of veterans’ employment and benefits issues, along with his memberships in numerous veterans’ and civic organizations.

“Between my parents and siblings, the Vesper family’s grand total of military service comes to 104 years,” he said. “Looking back, not one of us ever regretted a day of it.”

Telly Halkias is a writer and editor from Bennington. E-mail: tchalkias@aol.com