Memorial Bridges Dedicated to Five War Casualties

Sept 17, 1997
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the state legislature, comprised of the Senate and the House of Representatives, enacted on September 17, 1997, an Act designating five bridges in the Town of Middleboro as Memorial Bridges.
Four of the bridges were dedicated to four casualties of the Vietnam War and one man who lost his life during the Korean War. Simeon L. Nickerson Post 64 American Legion members attended all five memorial dedications.

The first man listed under the Act was MIA Sergeant WILLIAM MARK SMITH. The bridge located on Center Street spanning the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority tracks was designated the Sergeant William M. Smith Memorial Bridge.
Sergeant Smith, 21, was a U.S. Army rifleman with Company B, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. He was reported “Missing In Action” on March 3, 1969. His body has never been found. He was survived by his parents Mr. and Mrs. Smith, two brothers, Robert and Richard and three sisters, Susan, Shirley and Sandra.
(His name is listed on panel 30W-line 32 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall In Washington)
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The bridge located on Cross Street spanning the tracks of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was designated for U.S. Navy Captain HUBERT BRADFORD LOHEED, a graduate of the Naval Academy.
He served as Executive Officer and later as Commander of Attack Squadron-146. He flew an A-4C Skyhawk from the deck of the carrier USS Ranger in Vietnam. He was shot down over North Vietnam on February 1, 1966 and listed as “Missing In Action.”
His remains were identified on August 23, 1994 and returned to the states for burial with full military honors in November, 1994. He was the son of Arthur I. and Myrtle G. Loheed.
( His name can be found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, panel 04-E-line 130)
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Marine Corps Private First Class GERALD BRIAN DORR, 19, died of combat wounds on April 15, 1967 in the Da Nang Station hospital from injuries in Quang Nam Province. The bridge located on West Grove Street spanning the tracks of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was dedicated in his memory.
While serving in the Marine Corps, he penned, at age 18, a poem titled “A Man At Eighteen,” which describes a mother’s worry and heartache concerning a soldier son.
His poem is engraved on the Vietnam Era Veterans stone in Middleboro’s Veterans Memorial Park.

A MAN AT EIGHTEEN

……………………………………………….A lad, a boy, turned just eighteen.

………………………………………………..And a man he longs to be.

……………………………………………..Four months of hell he just went through.

………………………………………………..And now he rates the Marine Corps Blues.

………………………………………………….He learns to fight, to maim, to kill.

………………………………………………….Even though it’s against his will

……………………………………………………He will fight a war for us.

……………………………………………………Without a word, a thought, a fuss

……………………………………………………A mother sits and she cries

……………………………………………………For she knows that some must die

……………………………………………………And she prays, “Dear God of mine,

……………………………………………………Save my son, just this time.”

……………………………………………………Then she sobs and holds her head.

……………………………………………………She just now learned her son is dead.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..Gerald Brian Dorr
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Family survivors were his mother; father Merrill C. Dorr; a brother Robert and three sisters, June, Marilyn and Debbie.
(His name is located on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on panel 18E-line 28)

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Private First Class WILLIAM FREDERICK HITCHCOCK, 23, was killed in action by multiple fragmentation wounds on April 15, 1969 at Cu Chi in Tay Ninh Province. The bridge located on Nemasket Street spanning the Nemasket River was dedicated in his name.
A graduate of Southern Connecticut State College, he was a teacher of grades five and six at the Assawompsett School in Lakeville before entering the service.
His parents were Robert W. and Ethelwyn (Morris) Hitchcock. Other survivors were Carol J. Hitchcock and three brothers Richard, Donald and Robert; and his grandmother Mrs. Harry Morris.
( His name is engraved on panel 27W-line 87 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington)
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The fifth name listed in the Legislative Act for a memorial is Leo A. Gamache who perished in the Korean War. His memory will be maintained on the bridge located at East Grove Street spanning the Nemasket River. It will be known as the Leo A. Gamache Memorial Bridge.Leo had served during the Second World War with the U.S. Navy from November 12, 1945 until receiving an honorable discharge on August 17, 1946. He earned the World War 2 Victory Medal for his service.
Leo joined the Army in December 1950 and saw action in the Korean War. He was a PFC when he was Killed In Action on October 6, 1951. He had been serving with K Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Divison when he was killed, while attacking enemy forces in the vicinity of Yanggu, North Korea. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Gamache of 69 Cambridge Street,Middleboro.
Among the veterans who attended his funeral and representing Simeon L. Nickerson Post 64 American Legion were Commander Wilmouth Waterman and Fred M. Wright, Paul McCann and Freeman Taylor and William Donahue. Mrs. Mary Waterman, president of the Legion Auxiliary, also attended.
Legislatures also enacted the provision in the Act that all the memorial plaques and bridges will be maintained by the Department of Highways. It stated, “….shall erect and maintain a suitable marker on said bridge bearing said designation in compliance with the standards of the department.”
These Memorial Bridges were passed to be enacted on October 8, 1997 and were signed into law by Acting Governor Paul Cellucci at 2:25 P.m.
.......................(Compiled by Bob Lessard Historian 2014)