This Vietnam veteran from New Bedford finally got a hero's welcome thanks to Honor Flight

NEW BEDFORD — By the time the Collier-Lee Honor Flight touched back down in Fort Myers, Florida, it had already been a very full Saturday for New Bedford native and seasonal resident Donald Lavimoniere and the other veterans who had flown out early that morning to Washington, D.C., to tour military monuments during a special day trip dedicated to them.

But the welcome back they received at Southwest Florida International Airport cut through any exhaustion, as a cheering crowd lined the veterans' path from their terminal gate to greet them.

Even after taking in sights he'd waited years to see, and even after being formally honored for wartime service he's been scorned for in the past, this surprise gesture, which capped off his group's Honor Flight experience this past weekend, is what the 91-year-old says he treasures the most.

A warm welcome home

"You'd think a grown man wouldn't have these reactions," Lavimoniere said as he fought back tears to describe the moment. "The sheriff and his department were there welcoming us back, and then there must have been 200 to 300 people — kids, former soldiers saluting us, giving us challenge coins and pins and things like that. It was the most emotional part for me, that's for sure."

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As a member of the First Battalion 211th Field Artillery — the National Guard's now-dissolved New Bedford-based installation and the only Massachusetts battalion to be called into service during Vietnam — Lavimoniere was sent over to the Southeast Asian country, as were over half of the battalion's members, in 1968. But officially, he explained, the 211th never left the U.S. "They told us that as soon as the battalion passed the Army training test that we would be subject for individual levies, and of course we didn’t like that. This was our second call-up — we had stayed together in '61 (during the Cuban Missile crisis), but they said this isn't '61," Lavimoniere said. "So even though more than half of us got sent over as individuals, they made it a point to say the battalion never left the country."

A SouthCoast get-together in Vietnam

While in Vietnam, Lavimoniere recalls reaching out to The Standard-Times for help getting word out to other local soldiers stationed there at the time about a get-together he and others had planned. The event was intended as a gathering for any members of National Guard battalions local to the Greater New Bedford area. According to a news clipping from The Standard-Times, dated Thursday, Sept. 4, 1969, under the headline "211th Artillery Members Hold Viet Reunion," the event took place on Aug. 31, 1969.

"They came from all over South Vietnam and the reunion was reminiscent of a typical New England cookout with barbecue, sandwiches and cold beverages available," the article reads.

Lavimoniere, who was a major at the time, recalls the occasion as "quite an event."

"We had quite a lot of people turn out — about 50 people or so, which was a lot," he said. "It was a major thing."

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The article says the day was "unusual in many aspects, but perhaps the most unusual were the directions."

"There are no traffic lights to turn at or street sights to guide the participants. Instead, in a country torn by war, the directions read: 'Our sponsoring unit is located between gates 2 and 3 on the road that is bordered by the barbed wire fence," the article reads. "A touching moment came when Staff Sgt. Robert Beaudoin of New Bedford scribbled his unit's slogan on a napkin and presented it to the group. 'For those who have to fight for it — life has a flavor the protected will never know.'"

The article cites the "committee members" responsible for the event were Capt. Bothelho, Maj. Donald M. Lavimoniere, Spec. 5 Stephen Glassman and Staff Sgt. David Ellis.

A not-so-warm welcome home

When he and others from the 211th returned home from Vietnam and went back to work at the New Bedford Armory on Pleasant Street, the treatment they received was in stark contrast to the heartfelt outpouring of support Lavimoniere experienced in Florida this past weekend.

"We'd normally wear our uniforms to go to work. Well, when we came home, we were told don't wear them to work; have a change of clothes and put them on while you're there because there was no respect — we were baby killers and all that stuff," he said. "I lost the back window of my car one time. I had parked too close to the armory and got a brick through it. What can I say?"

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Taking flight

Lavimoniere — whose military service spans from 1948 to 1990 — would eventually rise to the top battalion rank of lieutenant colonel, or commander, of the 211th, which had him managing operations at the New Bedford headquarters as well as outlying batteries in Fall River, Middleboro and Falmouth, before moving on from the 211th to a number of wider-reaching roles for the National Guard, including serving as commander at Camp Edwards in Cape Cod and as the Guard's director of operations for all of Massachusetts.

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In the years after his retirement from the National Guard, Lavimoniere enjoyed many years as a self-proclaimed "snow bird" with his wife, Evelyn, flying down to Fort Myers for the cold months and back to New Bedford for the warmer ones. In more recent years, Lavimoniere became interested in Honor Flights after hearing about them and their mission of honoring the nation's veterans. However, his interest fell on bad timing.

"I was scheduled to go a couple of years ago but the COVID shut that down. I didn’t think I was going to make it," he said.

But he did, and came back from the Lee-Collier Honor Flight with rave reviews of every aspect of the all-expenses paid trip — from the continental breakfast the veterans arrived to prior to boarding their 3 a.m. flight, to several surprises on the way home, and everything in between.

"The trip was absolutely fantastic. It's just unbelievable what they do for us," Lavimoniere said, noting being impressed by how well organized and executed the day's events were. "They thought of everything. Everything."

Capping off a fantastic day

While seeing monuments like the Korean War Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial and, of course, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial — where veterans of the war took part in a pinning ceremony — made for a full day, it was the finishing touches that got to Lavimoniere the most.

"On the flight home while a lot of us were kind of dozing off, they put the lights on and said 'oh no you don't! Mail call!'" he said. "What they had done was reached out to our emergency contacts and asked them to write letters to us, and they waited till then to give them to us."

One letter Lavimoniere received took him particularly by surprise.

"I have a niece, who's also my goddaughter, from Carolina, and in her letter she had enclosed a picture that I sent her when I was in Vietnam," he said. "We were just talking about it on the phone last night."

"I remember my Mom telling me you were very far away in a strange place and we couldn't see or talk to you — so as a 9-year old at the time, I wrote you letters," the letter read. "I had no idea what the Vietnam War was about at that age, but I thought you were all alone and in a dangerous, dark jungle and I wanted to make you smile. I hope I accomplished that."

After the mail call, the plane touched down at Southwest Florida International Airport, where the aforementioned crowd awaited to welcome the veterans back home. As tired as the veterans were, Lavimoniere said "we were sparked up by all those people."

And while he wishes he could reach out and thank them all, he did what he could in the following days to send his gratitude to the ones he could track down. "The best I could do was identify one kindergarten class because they mentioned the teacher's name," he said. "So I was able to go online, find the school and I sent her an email thanking her and telling her to thank the kids. That was amazing."

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Lavimoniere also noted spotting a familiar face in the crowd — an acquaintance from a grief support group he's joined since the passing of his wife, whom he noted would have been part of that crowd as well if it weren't for COVID delaying his originally planned 2020 Honor Flight. "I didn't even know she was going to be there," Lavimoniere said.

'Near and dear'

The Honor Flight experience includes the assignment of a personal "guardian" to each veteran on the trip to ensure a safe day and to help with any accommodations needed. Lavimoniere says his guardian, Kimberly Nelson-Wulff, went above and beyond. Nelson-Wulff, who is involved with Honor Flights as a volunteer, says the honor was all hers.

"One of the things they tell us in pre-mission guardian training is that for this one day, you are their family member, and that's really how I look at it," she said. "To be able to be a part of this is really an honor. My mom and dad are both veterans, so veterans have a place near and dear to my heart."

As of May 3, the Honor Flights Network has flown 250,000 veterans to D.C., and Nelson-Wulff said despite being clearly well-deserving of the experience, Lavimoniere seemed as if he could hardly believe his luck that he had been picked to be one of them.

"I think for Donald, there was this sense of awe that he was even on the flight," she recalled, identifying his disbelief as a potential product of the treatment he experienced as a Vietnam veteran. "They weren't exactly honored when they came home. So to have this experience where it was all about him, honoring his service, making him feel valued — it was all kind of a breathtaking experience for him."

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"They say they're honoring us," Lavimoniere said of Nelson-Wulff and all those who made his special day possible. "But as I see it, they all deserve to be honored for all they do for us. I won't ever forget it."

"​The Honor Flight Network is currently serving veterans who served from World War II to the Korean War and through to Vietnam. We also serve catastrophically ill and injured veterans from all service eras," the Honor Flights Network site reads. For more information on upcoming Honor Flights, visit www.honorflight.org

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford Vietnam veteran takes part in Honor Flight to Washington