Wayland Purple Heart Winner Preps For Memorial Day Leadership Role

WAYLAND, MA — In the early 1960s, Richard Turner knew he had bigger things to do than cut grass in his hometown.

After graduating from Wayland High School in 1962, Turner took a job in the parks department as a laborer. But as the nation's investment in the conflict in Vietnam grew, Turner decided to enlist in the Navy — the start of a career that would take him from the naval shipyards at home to the waterways of Vietnam, where he piloted a gunboat and earned a Purple Heart.

This Memorial Day weekend, the longtime Wayland resident will take charge as the grand marshal of the annual parade honoring service members who died at war.

When Turner joined the Navy in 1964 — the year of the Gulf of Tonkin incident — he was sent to a shipyard in Philadelphia where he worked on tugboats guiding warships in and out of dock. After four years, he reenlisted, and was sent to river assault school in Vallejo, Calif., in the Bay Area. It was a pivotal moment for Turner, catapulting him into the midst of an unpopular war at home that was escalating amid the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Turner piloted World War II-era landing boats that the Navy rebuilt with heavy armor and landing pads for Huey helicopters. The boats were under powered, Turner recalled, chugging slowly up the Mekong and falling prey to gun and rocket fire from the banks. He spent a year prowling rivers in Vietnam and saw multiple battles.

"We saw quite a lot of action," he said.

During one firefight, an enemy rocket penetrated the landing boat, shot through under the helicopter landing pad and out the other side of the boat, just missing Turner.

"[Turner] participated in operations involving numerous combat missions, which struck deep into the enemy-infested waters of the Mekong Delta and inflicted heavy losses to the enemy. In one instance, he reacted quickly and courageously. Despite exceedingly long operation periods, he unfailing met the requirements of the combat situation with enthusiasm and determination," a citation letter from E.R. Zumwalt Jr., a then-U.S. Navy Vice Admiral, said.

Apart from the Purple Heart, Turner earned 14 other medals, including the Navy Achievement Medal, the National Defense Medal and two medals awarded by the Vietnamese government.

After Vietnam, Turner returned to Massachusetts, working as a driver for a captain based out of the Quincy shipyard. He went on to serve aboard the USS Detroit, USS Saginaw and at the Naval correctional facility in Newport, Rhode Island. He retired from the Navy in 1984, but continued to work for the federal government in Rhode Island.

Turner returned to Wayland in 2002 to care for his father. After returning home, Turner got involved in local civic activities, serving as a member of the Wayland Public Ceremonies Committee and the Veterans Memorial Committee. Public ceremonies committee member Donna Bouchard nominated him to become this year's Memorial Day parade grand marshal.

Speaking from his Wayland home this week, Turner was nursing a cold, but was enthusiastic about his role helping the town observe the "solemn" holiday. Turner will lead the parade from atop of a brand new Chevrolet Corvette, and will be part of the speaking program at Wayland’s Lakeview Cemetery.

"I think it's a great honor," he said this week. "I have a cold, but I told [the parade committee], come hell or high water, I'm going to be the grand marshal for you."

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