How a Vietnam veteran from Fall River received his combat medal 58 years after it was awarded

FALL RIVER — Almost six decades is a long time to wait for something.

One local veteran doesn't have to wait any longer for an accolade that he was first awarded in 1965.

It has been nearly 58 years Specialist Fourth Class Charles Norman Gagnon was honored with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, but he received his medal at last at the Fall River Veterans Day Ceremony at B.M.C. Durfee High School.

The Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry is a military decoration that is awarded to military personnel, civilians and Armed Forces units and organizations for deeds of valor or heroic conduct while in combat.

This long-overdue honor came about after Gagnon, a Fall River resident, spoke with state Rep. Carole Fiola. He showed her his paperwork from when he was awarded the Cross of Gallantry, and expressed a wish of just wanting to see what the award would look like.

“I just asked [Rep.] Fiola if she could look into seeing what it looked like,” Gagnon said in a phone interview with The Herald News. “I just wanted a picture of it.”

Fiola, moved by his story, decided to try to actually get him the medal, and her office teamed up with Rep. Jake Auchincloss’ to confirm Gagnon’s recognition and get him his medal.

“We were so moved by Mr. Gagnon’s story that I knew I had to do everything possible to make it right for him,” Fiola said in a press release from her office.

“The Veterans Day ceremony seemed like the perfect time to publicly recognize him, and VSO Michelle Hamilton and Mayor Coogan were most helpful in assuring we could finally present Mr. Gagnon with his medal,” Fiola said in the release.

At the ceremony, Gagnon was presented with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with palm medal “for his brave and courageous action” as a helicopter crew chief during the Vietnam War.

“This presentation was decades late, but important in recognizing the heroic work of our veteran,” said Fiola.

“I wasn’t expecting to get it,” Gagnon said. “I really don’t reach out looking for accolades. I try to keep to myself pretty much.”

Since then, he’s received further certificates of recognition, from other local officials.

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Gagnon served in Vietnam from 1964 to 1965, with MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) and the Army Air Corps.

“I was with the 121st Aviation Company to start with and then I progressed up,” Gagnon said. “I became the battalion commander’s crew chief.”

Gagnon said he went into the service as a helicopter mechanic.

“I got aircraft mechanic and tandem-rotor helicopter certification, and then I got single-rotor helicopter certification while I was in Vietnam,” he said.

“Being the crew chief on a helicopter, you’re flying the helicopter, but as a result of flying with the helicopter, you have to be a door gunner. You fly combat missions all the time over there.”

Gagnon, who flew throughout the Mekong Delta, said he has nine Air Medals for combat missions.

“There’s 25 combat missions per Air Medal,” Gagnon said. “First they give you the Air Medal, then they give you oak leaf clusters to the Air Medal, and I got eight oak leaf clusters to the Air Medal, so it’d come up to about over 225 combat air assault missions that I flew over there.”

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Gagnon is also a recipient of The Bronze Star (awarded for heroic and meritorious service or achievement), with “V” device, a decoration for valor. He said The Bronze Star took him by surprise.

“I really don’t know for sure what it was that I did that was so special,” he said. “It didn’t seem like much, because all I was doing, was doing my job. You get medals for doing your job; that doesn’t make sense to me.”

After he came back stateside, Gagnon found work in various fields over the years, going where opportunity and his curiosity led him.

Over the years, he worked at Quonset Point Naval Air Station doing aircraft repair; did some work with his brother, who was a master electrician; ran successful service stations; and he worked at a boat yard in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

The boat yard was Gagnon’s last job; he worked there for 30 years.

It was only the COVID-19 pandemic that put an end to that part of his career. He was laid off during that time.

At the time, he was 77 years old, and still working 45 hours a week.

“I’ve done a lot of things over the years, worked in a lot of fields,” Gagnon said. “I just enjoyed learning the stuff.”

He put himself through college in the 1970s, going to school at night, and graduated with honors, obtaining an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration.

“I was always curious about a lot of things, so I always looked to see what they were all about,” he said.

Gagnon married twice, and raised a family. He and his first wife had four children, and his second wife had four children when he married her. He and his second wife adopted a child together. His second wife passed away first, with cancer, and his first wife, who had dementia, passed away six months later.

His family was with him on the day he received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry at Durfee.

“I’ve got quite a few grandchildren, and I’ve got some great-grandchildren,” Gagnon said.

Reflecting on his life, and his time in the service, Gagnon said, “When I flew over Vietnam, I never had an issue, I never got injured severely, my helicopter never took a round in it. God was with me. God’s been with me all my life.”

Herald News/Taunton Daily Gazette copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Vietnam War veteran receives Cross of Gallantry medal after 58 years