Dennis Beauregard

Dennis Beauregard was born in November 1946, in Newark, New Jersey. His two older brothers served in the Navy and the Army, one in the Korean War and the other in World War II. After graduating from high school, Beauregard went to work as a postal clerk with the Werner Company. He tried to join the Air Force, but was rejected, then he was drafted into the Army in May 1967.

Beauregard was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for basic training and then Fort Jackson, South Carolina for advanced individual infantry training. He described military life as “regimental” because “you have to take a lot of orders.” His training at Fort Jackson occurred at the same time as riots were occurring in his hometown of Newark. After advanced training, Beauregard went on leave, married his fiancée, and then traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington to leave for Vietnam in August 1967.

In Vietnam, Beauregard was assigned to B Company of the 9th Infantry Division’s 3rd Battalion 39th Infantry, which was stationed at Rach Kien in Long An Province. He recalled that Vietnam was “hot as hell” and “when that door [of the plane] opened up, it was so hot you couldn’t believe it.”

His unit was stationed in the Mekong Delta; and, shortly after their arrival in Vietnam, went on a field operation. Stepping off the Huey helicopter, Beauregard was sucked into a swamp, and their unit encountered heavy fire. On another occasion, his platoon set up a night ambush position, and was charged by a water buffalo! There was occasional downtime at base camp to relax and drink beer. He received letters from home; once a squashed box arrived that held a Valentine’s Day cake. In February 1968, during the Tet Offensive, his unit was stationed near Bien Hoa where they endured a barrage of heavy mortar fire, during which Beauregard was wounded by shrapnel He lost a lot of blood, was sent to a field hospital, and subsequently evacuated to a hospital in Japan, where he remained for three and a half months.

Beauregard believed the Tet Offensive of 1968 was an American intelligence failure. He said, “I don’t blame the military; I blame the government. If the government let the military run it without politics, we wouldn’t have any of these problems.” Beauregard felt the soldiers of the South Vietnamese army “had a lot to learn” about fighting a war; he held them responsible for the death of a friend, for which he felt survivor’s guilt.

On his return to New Jersey, Beauregard’s mother, wife, and cousin met him at McGuire Air Force Base on his way to Valley Forge Military Hospital, from where he was discharged for disability after seven months of physical therapy. He was retired from the Army in his rank as a Specialist 4th Class due to medical disability. Then Beauregard was classified as a disabled veteran by the Veterans Administration, which enabled him to collect a larger pension than military retirement. After the war, he learned about veterans’ organizations and how to endure PTSD. Beauregard’s brother Dick, the Korean War veteran, used to call Vietnam Veterans “crybabies.” Dennis ended up seeing that his brother was hurting too, so went about getting him help through a Veterans’ outreach program in Michigan. When the brothers next saw each other, Dick kissed and hugged Dennis in gratitude.

Beauregard said, “everyone thinks PTSD is only a combat trauma,” but it comes from any duty in a war zone. He is supportive of other Veterans and continues helping them, serving his twenty-fifth year as chapter president of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) NJ Shore Area Chapter 12 in Oakhurst, New Jersey. The chapter is the largest in New Jersey and the nineteenth largest in the country. Beauregard cleared up a common misconception about the organization, saying, “people think you’re going to VVA to talk war stories, it’s not there for that. They’re there for comradery.” What he remembers most about Vietnam is the comradery.