NH Seabee chose to serve in Vietnam even though he didn’t have to

In 1963, a young man entered military service with the Navy and subsequently trained to be a member of the Construction Battalion, or Seabees. Ray Vercoe was the only child of a New Hampshire family, and was a serviceman confronted with the unusual option of not having to go to war. Being an only son, he could have opted not to serve in combat in Vietnam. And he had another good reason for remaining out of harm’s way – his wife, Kay, had just given birth to their first child, a daughter, who was only 10 days old. But, as is true with so many who serve our country, Vercoe held within him a pride and esprit de corps that compelled him to serve. He believed he owed that to the men of his unit, to his nation and to himself. After training, Mobile Construction Battalion 12 received orders to deploy to Da Nang, Vietnam. Da Nang sits along the edge of the South China Sea and is only a few short miles from the Demilitarized Zone, well within the range of enemy artillery.