Vincent Bernard- Vietnam War

Wartime Heritage ASSOCIATION

Name: Vincent Bernard Rank: Lance Corporal Service Number: 2357451 Service: Combined Action Platoon 1-3-6, CACO 1-3, 1st Combined Action Group, III MAF 3rd Marine Regiment, United States Marine Corps Awards: Combat Action Ribbon, National Defence Medal, Purple Heart, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal Date of Birth: September 7, 1945 Place of Birth: Waqmiqkok (Wagmatcook), Victoria County, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: July 5, 1967 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Dorchester, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Date of Death: September 21, 1968 Age at Death: 23 Cemetery: Queen of The World Cemetery, Wagmatcook, Victoria County, Nova Scotia Remembered on Panel 43W, Line 51 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC Remembered on the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Windsor, Ontario. Born on September 7, 1945, Vincent, of Mi'kmaw heritage, was one of ten children of Frank Bernard (1913- 1967), who predeceased his son, and Mary Susan (Isidore) Bernard (1917-1991) of Pka'wi'knk (Nyanza), Victoria County, Nova Scotia. Vincent left his five brothers and four sisters to live with his uncle, John Bernard, who had been chief of the Mi'kmaw Reserve in Wagmatcook and had moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Vincent’s father was born in Kweso’mkiaq (North Sydney area) of Cape Breton Co., NS. Vincent joined the United States Marine Corps and his tour in Vietnam began December 13, 1967, where he was assigned to Company G, 2d Battalion, 3d Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division (Reinforcement), of the Fleet Marine Force until he was reassigned and joined CAP (Combined Action Platoon) 1-3-6, CACO 1-3, 1st CAG, III MAF on July 20, 1968. Combined Action Platoons, or CAPs, were units where Marines would live, train, and patrol with local Vietnamese PFs (Popular Forces) in their villages and who were little more than armed civilians. A squad of Marines would be assigned to villages that had a high enemy presence to instill the fighting spirit in the local PFs so they could protect their families and fellow citizens against their enemy, the Viet Cong and NVA. On September 21, 1968, while on patrol, the men of CAP 1-3-6 encountered an unknown number of enemy VCs on the outskirts of Phu Le village, in the Binh Son District of Quang Ngai Province, after a furious exchange of gunfire, Lance Corporal Vincent Bernard was killed in action, the result of a head wound inflicted by hostile small arms fire. His body was recovered, and he is interred at the Queen of The World Cemetery, Wagmatcook, Victoria County, NS, and remembered on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall at the National Mall in Washington, DC, and the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The North Wall) in Windsor, Ontario. Vietnam War Veterans Day is commemorated each March 29th in the United States of America Sma'knis’ (soldier in Mi’kmaw) is a poem written by Will Basque (Sergeant, US Marine Corps, Vietnam) that was dedicated to Corporal Lance Vincent Bernard about participating in war. Will Basque (1945-1998), Staff Sergeant, US Marine Corps (1964-1968), completed two tours in Vietnam.

Vincent Bernard

Sources: findagrave – Queen of the World Cemetery honorstates.org The Wall of Faces - Vietnam War Memorial Fund TheVirtualWall.org Remembering Will Basque (1945-1998) (background photo: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall)

Sma'knis By Will Basque I have always kept returning ever since the day I was born Each time your drum and circle called, my soul was ripped and torn Forever as I picked up my lance, my quiver and my bow The eagle soaring me on high would swoop down and drop me low But it is my duty to fight for my people and for my nation The test and trials of war are but my sacred tribulations I am called Sma'knis In the days of probes and invasions by some other tribes I fought off our enemies so that peace would come alive Yet I was most needed later in a time called 1752 My promise to never surrender, Niskam made come true As my Giganums fought on, never even blinking an eye We won our peace and friendship but it was me who had to die I am called Sma'knis I returned in a generation with the echoes of your drumbeat To march with George Washington, with my brothers, the Malecite No retreat - no surrender was our promise at Watertown We protected America's freedom, we never let them down The guarantee of self-government was what we all agreed But I was killed in action, so our people have the Jay Treaty I am called Sma'knis I slept for more generations, well over a hundred years But came to life to return to war to fight in Germany I slogged in mud at Verdun where I saw a new kind of war They called it World War I but World War II was even more I went through hell in a place called Dieppe to land at Normandy I was there to liberate Holland but my body was buried at sea I am called Sma'knis As the communist world swept over from Europe to the Far East My reserve back home is what I missed, I hungered for your feast High on a hill in Korea while freezing in the lonely cold I sweated in deep desperation for our orders were "to hold" Although completely surrounded, we held our position's goal Staving out human wave attacks but I was killed while on patrol I am called Sma'knis While as a youth still in my teens, some said I was a fool But boot camp at Parris Island was nothing to residental school I fought in the jungles of Vietnam and kept my Mi'kmaq pride And brought home my people's honor through the men I kept alive I was there at Con-Tien and Khesanh, in the battle of Hue/Phu-Bai But as I laid fatally wounded, only Niskam heard my cry I am called Sma'knis Don't take your freedom for granted, the Trickster is always at work He'll take and keep, not give and share, the circle would die from hurt I fought for rights and freedom, not just ours but the world's And laid down my life for my fellow man, "no greater love" I'm told Remember me each summer at mission, pow wows and Maine For Niskam knows if you forget my death, then I have died in vain I am called Sma'knis

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