War memorabilia on display at NUWC for Veterans Day has special meaning

The cylindrical canvas sea bag, now a faded shade of green, has been all over the globe, from France to Cuba, Libya to Canada and pockets in between. It once carried the belongings – photographs, love letters and mementos – of Paul Phillip Cournoyer, who served in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s.

These days, the bag itself is a beloved possession of Cournoyer’s granddaughter, Ryann Cournoyer of Cranston, who is a physicist in the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport’s Underwater Sound Reference Branch in the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department. It is part of her family collection of war memorabilia that is on display during the month of November as part of the command’s celebration of Veterans Day.

In addition to the sea bag, on display is a battle helmet from her great-grandfather and an artillery shell, both used while fighting in the trenches in France during World War I. The shell was later made into a piggy bank. There are also her grandfather’s love letters and photographs.

“When I called him and told him it was going to be placed in the display case, he was ecstatic,” Ryann said of her grandfather, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. “He said, ‘I don’t want our family to be forgotten.’ He did a lot of great things, and I’m happy people are going to appreciate it. He was incredibly thankful.”

Living through history

Paul Peter Cournoyer, her great-grandfather, was born and raised in Canada before immigrating to the United States. One of the first things he did after becoming a U.S. citizen was head to the local recruiting office to join America’s efforts overseas. Cournoyer fought, reenlisted, and fought again until, Ryann said, the military finally turned him away for being “too old” for battle. Part of the memorabilia collection is a 5-foot frame that contains two panoramic photographs of her great-grandfather and the men in his WWI platoon.

Inspired by his father’s heroism, Paul Phillip Cournoyer, Ryann’s grandfather, also opted to serve soon after graduating from Natick High School in Massachusetts with the Class of 1961. With an expertise in sonar and radar, he was serving on the destroyer USS Du Pont (DD-941) when the Sailors detected the first Soviet vessel headed for the Caribbean Sea during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Less than a year later, Cournoyer was a member of the team that discovered the remains of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), a technologically advanced submarine that sank in April 1963 while conducting deep-dive trials roughly 220 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

“He acts so casual about all of this stuff, but he’s lived through some very important parts of history,” Ryann said.

‘He took care of me’

Upon leaving the service, Paul Phillip Cournoyer and his wife had four children. He worked as a postman and other odd jobs to provide for his family. He retired around the same time Ryann was born to help raise her and her two older brothers while their single mother went to work.

“All three of us called him dad, and that was a big deal for my grandfather because he was just trying to be there,” Ryann said. “He took me to all of the father-daughter dances. He took me to all of the sock hops in my town. He sat through ballet recitals.

"My town was very judgmental, very nuclear family-orientated, so it was different than the rest of the families and all of the other girls. But he took care of me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Ryann soon grew interested in learning more about her grandfather’s experience in the military, and he had plenty of stories to share. There was the time he met actress Grace Kelly, later the Princess of Monaco, while his ship was docked and the crew was playing a game of baseball. Another time, on a helicopter transport to Key West in Florida, a Sailor grabbed Cournoyer’s sea bag, mistaking it for his own. That Sailor’s name also was Cournoyer and, unbeknownst to them, the two were cousins.

As quick as Cournoyer was with a story, he was even quicker with a dad joke and still has an infectious laugh. But he’s also quite humble about his service. When Ryann was playing with the high school band, military fight songs were included among the numbers. Before one of the football games, the public address announcer asked all current and former military members to stand for applause, and when Ryann realized her grandfather remained seated, she asked why.

“He said, ‘Because you serve to serve. You don’t serve to stand later in life and be recognized,’” she said. “I always thought that was so interesting because he’s shared these stories with me his whole life, and you’d think he’d want to tell people. He’s proud of it, but he thinks that if you love your country, you serve for your country. It wasn’t something he needed a pat on the back for. It’s just something he did.”

Facing adversity and aiding the warfighter

After graduating from high school, Ryann sought a degree in physics from the University of Arizona. Midway through her schooling, she decided she wanted to join the military and began to train for the physical requirements needed to serve.

That’s when she suffered a knee injury that proved to be blessing in disguise. While undergoing tests on her knee, doctors discovered a far more serious issue with her heart. Nowadays, you might see Ryann making her way around the Division Newport campus with a sweet, 3-year-old black lab aptly named Shadow, a service dog trained to recognize cardiac episodes.

“This is something I’ve come to terms with,” she said. “At that time, I had to mourn the life I thought I was going to have and the body I thought I had. But you have to make do with what you’ve got. You have to ask yourself, ‘What assets do I still have and how can I utilize them? What will make me happy?’”

What makes her happy now is her current role with the team in the Underwater Sound Reference Branch.

“I love my job in Newport,” said Ryann, who worked at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dalhgren for six months before transferring to Division Newport. “This is it. This would have been my dream job as a kid. I get to work on multiple projects. I love what I do. My colleagues are both personable and very professional, and I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

Even though Ryann’s dream of serving in the military – like her grandfather and her great-grandfather before that – didn’t work out, she finds solace in the fact she’s still aiding the warfighter.

“On the days I don’t really want to work, I have to remind myself that the stuff that we’re doing — if we lived in the same time period — would have helped my grandfather,” she said. “I have a lot of pride in that.”

This story was provided by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport as part of the What We Do Matters campaign that highlights the critical role that NUWC Division Newport plays in supporting the U.S. Navy fleet.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: NUWC Division Newport physicist donates family war memorabilia