Korean War veteran Jerome ‘Jerry’ Lavigne has been honoured in New Hampshire, as Ray Duckler reports for the Concord Monitor.
“Jerry Lavigne bowed slightly to receive his medal, draped around his neck like an official presenting gold at the Olympics, leading to a handshake and a two-minute speech that seamlessly mixed laughter with tears.
Lavigne smiled when he spoke at the Pleasant View Retirement Community on Saturday, thanking family and friends who attended a service honoring him as an Ambassador of Peace by the South Korean government for his service during the Korean War more than 70 years ago.
He laughed when citing the photo of Marilyn Monroe singing from the stage to the troops in Korea – tacked to a bulletin board near the entrance to the cavernous meeting room with other black-and-white pictures from the mid-1950s –then held his index finger against his lips, gesturing that this historic rendezvous with this legend involved a secret crush.
He paused trying to maintain his composure when mentioning his daughter, Ann Goulbourne of Chichester, who clandestinely coordinated this effort, ensuring that her father would receive the recognition he deserved for risking his life as a medic and gathering intelligence as a member of a unique reconnaissance ski patrol.
The South Korean Consulate honored Lavigne for his time spent on the front lines, both as a member of the 45th Infantry Division Thunderbirds, an elite group of skiers working in counterintelligence and reconnaissance, and as a medic, attending to the wounded during bloody firefights.
‘I came home and my family never knew what had happened; it was done, period,’ Lavigne said. ‘I started to open up more when I hit my 90s and asked myself, “What am I going to do with all this that I know about?” I never went through those boxes and thought I must have lost them. There were buddies who passed away. My wife never knew. When I turned 90, things began to open up.'”
The Marilyn Report 