Islanders Who Answered the Call: Richard Shepard, Father and Vietnam Veteran

Editor's note: This is the second of a three part series in honor of Islanders who have served.

Richard Shepard, who lives in Oak Bluffs, is a father and an Environmental Engineer at the . He is also a Vietnam War veteran. He went to Vietnam with the Marine Corps in 1968 when he was 19-years-old.

M.V. Patch: What was your experience the war?

Richard Shepard: I was in an engineering battalion. We did a lot of blowing up bridges, establishing perimeters and clearing fields so that they could get the food to the soldiers. I think that the war was different for soldiers of color because this was still a time of a lot of discrimination and many of the white soldiers from the South really didn’t like the black soldiers. So not only were we facing the hostility of the Vietnamese, we were facing it from other soldiers as well. One thing I think a lot of people don’t know is that many black soldiers stayed on in Vietnam after the war because they felt more welcomed there then they did back in the South.

M.V. Patch: What was your experience when you came home?

Richard Shepard: Because I was an orphan when I went in, I was still an orphan when I got home. I think it was really hard for a lot of the soldiers to accept the transition back into society because there was so much negative publicity about the war and vets. For a long time, I didn’t want to tell people that I had been in the military because soldiers were getting spat on and being called ‘baby killers,’ so I kept quiet about it for a lot of years. Now that these new wars have started, we seem to be getting a little more respect then we did when we came home. Now people are thanking me for my service, but there are still a lot of mixed emotions about this.

M.V. Patch: What is important to you about being a veteran?

Richard Shepard: It’s important to me now because I sacrificed a lot in my life so my family and friends had a clearer path to go to college and have the life they wanted. That’s one of the good things about doing honor to your country.