'Welcome home, my friend': Quincy honors native son who died in Vietnam 50 years ago

QUINCY – The city honored three Vietnam veterans from Quincy in a ceremony in Marina Bay, including one soldier listed as missing in action until a fellow veteran dug into his story and found he was likely killed as a prisoner of war more than 50 years ago.

Staff Sgt. Robert Phillips, a North Quincy native, became the 50th name engraved on the city's Vietnam memorial clock tower in Marina Bay during the June 28 ceremony. John Magnarelli, an Army veteran, brought the story of his high school friend and classmate "Bobby" to the attention of the mayor earlier this year.

Magnarelli said he saw Phillips in April1970 at an air base  outside Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. His own tour of duty was over, and he was "one of the lucky ones to be going home in one piece."

"All of the sudden, I saw this soldier walking past me, and I instantly recognized Bobby Phillips," Magnarelli said. "He was a great kid, fun to be with, full of mischief and always getting into trouble. Maybe that's why we hit it off so well."

The Phillips family moved away from Quincy after Bobby's freshman year of high school, and the pair lost touch. Phillips moved to Ohio and was finishing up his second tour of duty in Vietnam as a truck driver, Magnarelli said, with plans to move back to Quincy.

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"We caught up the best we could in the short time we had, and vowed to reconnect once he returned to Quincy," he said. "A few months later, The Patriot Ledger reported that Bobby was MIA. Missing in action."

Three years later, when the United States left Vietnam and the prisoners of war came home, Magnarelli said he thought he'd find Phillips' name among them, but never did.

"Months turned into years, and like so many other veterans, I got on with my life," he said. "All the time, wondering what had happened to Bobby."

In the mid-1990s, Magnarelli searched online for Phillips' name and found an official after action report, he said, "putting the pieces together" to find what happened to his friend.

"As it turned out, Bobby was not MIA. He was a POW," Magnarelli said.

As best as he can tell, Magnarelli said Phillips and two others were captured while delivering supplies to a base in Vietnam. He was moved around from one prisoner camp to another for months, his friend said, and attempted escape early in his captivity. More than a year and a half later, he did manage to escape before being recaptured and  possibly killed shortly after.

"His body was never recovered. And to this day, there is still no closure for his family and friends," Magnarelli said through tears. "Well, Bobby, it's been a long time. Fifty-two years and you're 10,000 miles from Quincy. But welcome home, my friend."

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Phillips was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal.

Two new benches in Marina Bay were dedicated to veterans Lawrence "Larry" Norton and Lt. Thomas Bolinder.

Norton, who died in 2020, was president of the Quincy Vietnam Combat Veterans Combined Armed Forces, past commander of the Quincy Veterans Council and  a 51-year member of the Morrissette American Legion Post 294. He was awarded several medals for his time in the service, including the Purple Heart.

"To say I miss Larry would be an understatement," Bolinder, a Marine Corps veteran, said.

Norton's grandson, Michael Norton Jr., led the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance ahead of the ceremony. Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch remembered Norton as a loyal force of nature with an undeniable dedication to honoring his fellow veterans.

"To know him was to love him," Koch said. "He was such a loyal guy. Loyal to (the Vietnam veterans) who had nobody advocating for them, loyal to his comrades, loyal to his city, certainly loyal to his family."

Bolinder served in Vietnam, then returned to Quincy  and joined the police department, rising to the rank of lieutenant.

Bolinder made the news in 2010 when two FBI agents showed up at his door with the news he'd been placed on a hit list by a suspected terrorist.

“They told me they were part of a joint task force on terrorism, and during an investigation, my name had appeared on a list for possible assassination,” he said at the time. “There were 15 people on the list.”

Bolinder said the agents revealed he was targeted because he was vice president of the nonprofit Military Combat Defense Fund and has been a spokesman for the organization.

"The word I think of with Tommy is 'dedication,'" Koch said. "Dedication to his nation and dedication to his community.

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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy honors Vietnam vets Bobby Phillips, Larry Norton, Tom Bolinder