Local veteran recognized with quilt

Dec. 28—TRANSFER — Although he served with the Army in Vietnam, Mark Nugent doesn't normally draw attention to himself, having spent his life post-service raising a family and working in the steel industry.

So when the Quilts of Valor Foundation presented Nugent with a quilt earlier this year, the 73-year-old Transfer resident said he was "absolutely" surprised.

"I had no idea it was coming," Mark said of the quilt, which features a bald eagle, an American flag, and patriotic colors throughout, as well as some airplanes in the corners — a reference to the Army's historic 101st Airborne Division.

The quilt was presented to Nugent on Nov. 3 at the Stony Point Grange in Greenville, and recognized Nugent's Army service, including a tour in Vietnam from June 1969 through June 1970.

Nugent, originally from Sharon, was drafted in mid-1969, after his friend Dennis Millison had been killed in February of that year while serving in the Marines in Vietnam.

So when Nugent's draft notice came, he enlisted two days early to ensure he could serve in the Army.

"If you went in on the day you were require, a drill sergeant would walk down the row of guys and pick a few to go in the Marines," Nugent said.

In the Army, Nugent was assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. But unlike the paratroopers of World War II who jumped from airplanes, Nugent and his fellow soldiers were deployed by helicopters.

During his first combat deployment on Dec. 16, 1969, Nugent and his unit were sent into a "hot" landing zone, and his helicopter — a UH-1 "Huey" with open sides — was shot at and hit nine times.

"That first combat drop, the pilots didn't want to risk it so they had the helicopter hover 12 feet above the ground and everybody had to jump off," Nugent said.

For that initial mission, Nugent's unit searched for enemy forces, and were later picked up by helicopter. Nugent would endure similar missions through his time in Vietnam, while other missions involved him and his unit camping out in the Vietnamese jungle for weeks or months at a time.

In some cases while out on patrol, Nugent served as the point man, or the individual who leads the rest while spotting for potential danger.

"Vietnam's called a jungle but it's really heavy forest, because the canopy was so thick it could be dark in the middle of the day," Nugent said.

While overseas, Nugent connected with a West Middlesex native named Tom Manbeck, who he had known about prior to his Army service. Nugent and Manbeck continued to stay in touch after the war before Manbeck's death in 2004.

Nugent met but lost track of other people while in Vietnam due to deployment or assignment changes.

"You always figured you'd get their addresses when it was all over, but there were times they'd call for someone and say, 'grab your gear, they need you over with this unit,' and you'd never run into them again," Nugent said.

Some of his other comrades during Nugent's time in Vietnam included a "Kit Carson" scout named "Bill," a former Viet Cong guerrilla who defected to the American side, and Wilson Spottedbird, a Native American soldier in Nugent's unit.

"Kit Carson" scouts, named for the 19th century American frontier woodsman, were often former enemy soldiers who were captured and turned to assist U.S. troops.

As indicated by the crafts he made to decorate his uniform, Spottedbird was also a talented artist who later worked for the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" and drew a caricature of Bob Hope for a United Service Organization show, Nugent said.

"Being in the Army, I really got to meet a lot of different kinds of people that I don't think I would have ever met here," Nugent said.

That comradeship was one of the most important parts of his military service, since Nugent said everyone depended on each other for survival, despite controversial opinions about the war.

"Whatever the politics were, we weren't there for that — we were trying to take care of each other," Mark said of his fellow soldiers.

Not all of Nugent's tour was spent in Vietnam, since he had two weeks of leave that he spent in British Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia. Hong Kong in particular was an interesting trip, with sights ranging from floating restaurants to a magic show.

Nugent's tour in Vietnam ended in July 1970, and after a 30-day stint at Ft. Polk, La., training the next round of recruits on lusing machine guns, Nugent returned to what would become a 50-year career at Sharon Steel, later NLMK Pennsylvania.

Even years after his Army service, Nugent said he could tell the experience changed him, particularly when it came to making him more proactive and willing to take a leadership role, whether it was at work, with the union or with his family.

"When I was younger, I was more of a follower. I didn't want to be charge of anybody," Nugent said. "But then by the end of basic training, I was a platoon leader."

Mark's adult son Ross Nugent, said his father didn't talk much about his military service while he and his two siblings were children.

But when Mark did discuss his service, it was usually describing something functional, such as type of helicopters during airshows, or tips his children could use when camping based on Mark's time in the Vietnamese wilderness.

"Dad would tell us a lot of stories about the heat or when it rained or how they set up camp, and growing up in Transfer, there's no shortage of wildlife," Ross said. "So when he taught us things like how to remove a snake away from the backyard, I could tell as a child that these were things he learned over there."

Although Ross said his father was not the type of veteran to display a flag or hat referencing his service, there were times Ross could tell Mark's Army service had a profound impact on him.

One of the most telling moments for Ross was during a family trip to Washington D.C., where they visited to the Vietnam War Memorial.

"Even at five years old, I could tell there was a reverence to this and what we were doing was important," Ross said.

Aside from conversations with people he knew personally that were in the service, Mark was never actively involved in veterans organizations or events, focusing instead on his family and his time with the steel mill and the union, which ended upon his retirement in January of 2019.

That changed in 2020, when a fellow veteran — Jerome Koutny, of Lake Village, Ind., tracked Nugent down and gave him a call.

He didn't recognize the number at first, but Nugent said once he and Koutny started talking, they ended up talking for hours.

Since then, Koutny has gotten Nugent involved in a couple events to meet up with some of other veterans from their unit, and they continue to catch up on the phone once in a while, despite some of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Whenever they're done talking, usually he'll come to me with the phone and say, 'the cell phone died,'" said Gloria Nugent, Mark's wife.

Greenville resident Pat Boyd, who made the quilt, said the presentation came about after Gloria recommended Mark to an associate at the Stony Point Grange, and the proposal eventually made its way to Pat.

Mark's quilt is the 10th Pat has made for Quilts of Valor, and she already has plans for the next local veterans who will be recognized for their service.

"It's all about the veterans. I admire all of those men and women," Pat said.

Pat's daughters Marlene Boyd and Martha Gruber presented Mark's quilt, and said previous veterans' reactions range from smiles to tears to asking, "Why me, why not them?"

"It's really an honor to present them with these quilts, because you can tell how much it means to them," Marlene said.

Like David L. Dye on Facebook or email him at ddye@sharonherald.com.