Roy James has always been surrounded by soldiers. When he was a child, he grew up on military bases where his father served as a career naval officer. After high school graduation, he was drafted into the Army and served as a machine gunner in the Vietnam War. Now a retired veteran, he’s still surrounded by men in uniform; photos of 212 soldiers hang in picture frames on the walls around the canteen of Grapevine Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10454.
Roy has served as the post commander for Grapevine VFW since 2016. Roy runs the group alongside his friend and ally, Senior Vice Commander Bo Pippin, a retired 30-year Marine and Purple Heart recipient. Men and women from Grapevine, Southlake and Colleyville walk through the canteen doors month after month to meet the people behind the VFW — veterans who served in the Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy.
But to Roy and Bo, none of those branches or lengths of enlistment matter. It boils down to the fact that they served, and they had the courage and conviction to come back and help those who serve today.
“I believed it was my duty to serve my country back then,” Roy says. “I still believe that is my duty to this very day.”
‘AN UNPOPULAR WAR’
After living in military bases his whole life, Roy never wanted to go back to the barracks. Yet in 1966, when he was 20 years old, Roy was drafted into the service.
“When I graduated from high school, I had an opportunity to go to Annapolis,” Roy says. “I told my dad: I do not want to go to the Navy. I’ve been in the Navy for my whole life.”
Roy soon left for Dallas and applied to the fire academy. Shortly after graduating, he got his draft letter in the mail. Roy says he wasn’t happy when he opened that letter, but he was resolute in doing what he needed to for his country.
“When I went into the service, I was very proud to serve my country,” Roy says. “That was the draft. Living on a military base, you always had in your mind that you were serving your country. You did what needed to be done.”
Bo’s experiences were slightly different from Roy’s. As soon as Bo graduated from high school in Nashville, he didn’t wait for the draft and signed up as soon as he could for the Marine Corps. Bo was 17 years old when he joined the Marines infantry in 1964 and stayed with the Corps until 1994.
“It was an unpopular war,” Bo recalls. “At the time, much of the social attitude was kind of anti-military.”
By the time Roy and Bo enlisted, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumed office and an additional 5,000 U.S. military advisors were deployed to South Vietnam. That brought the total number of American troops to 21,000, according to the U.S. Congressional Quarterlies. American involvement in the Vietnam War was just ramping up.
‘WE’RE GOING TO HOLD THIS HILL’
It was the summer of 1969, and Roy was a member of the fourth Infantry Division, which patrolled the border between Laos and Vietnam along with another company.
“We were overlooking the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was on the other side of the river,” Roy recalls. “Our companies were about two miles apart from each other.”
While they were on patrol, Roy heard gunfire and screaming from the other company. They were ambushed by a North Vietnamese regiment. Support rushed in to reinforce them. They exchanged gunfire with the enemy, but by then they were too late. The entire company was wiped out in a matter of minutes.
All that was left was saving Roy’s comrades. His lieutenant instructed Roy and two other gunners to take a position on the hill while the rest of the company withdrew. The lieutenant’s words still echo in his mind to this day: “We’re going to hold this hill.”
Roy says he and the other gunners held out for as long as they could, but it wasn’t long until they were overwhelmed by the opposition.
“Me and my assistant gunner both got shot by automatic weapon fire after we had exhausted all of our ammunition,” Roy recalls. “I helped him with a broken leg while I had a shoulder that was broke. I’m helping him. He’s hobbling with me. And we get back to where our company was held up.”
Roy and his assistant gunner got back to camp and were immediately treated with an adhesive that had recently been invented called super glue. Roy spent several months in the hospital, and he even shook hands with President Johnson at Fort Hood. But he couldn’t get his mind off of the more than 100 people that were lost in battle that day.
“There were 146 men in my company,” Roy recalls. “When the day was over, there were 26 of us left alive. Of the 26, six were not wounded.”
‘WE’RE NOT GONNA LEAVE YOU STANDING OUT THERE’
While he was in the hospital, all Roy heard on the news was American citizens protesting the war. When he was discharged, he saw even more of that up close.
“When I got out of the hospital and I came back to Dallas with my mom and dad, the people were still protesting,” Roy recalls. “They were protesting in the parks, the streets, the terminals. It didn’t register. I was, like, why? I’m here just doing my job.”
While Roy sometimes felt underappreciated for his service, the people who mattered to him most helped him persevere. He recalled family and friends who sent him care packages every two weeks filled with oatmeal, cookies and Louisiana hot sauce that he would pour onto his meals. It was a small gesture, but Roy never forgot.
“I knew I had support from the people closest to me — my family, my church — because they were sending me gifts,” Roy says. “We didn’t have a lot of support from people. But we had support from the people who were most important to us.”
That experience has fueled him, at least partially, toward Grapevine VFW’s activism and community engagement. About two or three times a year, Grapevine VFW sends care packages to active service members stationed in the Middle East. Roy says it's important that they know people are there for them like some people were there for Roy.
“We’ll send 150 to 200 boxes of stuff for the troops — toothbrushes, socks, stuff like that — just to let them know that we’re here for you,” Roy says. “We’re thinking about you. We’re not gonna leave you standing out there. Don’t think someone’s not caring about you.”
PARADES, PURPLE HEARTS AND PATRIOTISM
The care packages are not all Grapevine VFW does. Every year, the post hosts the Grapevine Veterans Day Parade along Main Street on November 9 and draws attention to issues, organizations and resources veterans may use for assistance. Roy says it's their most popular event with both sides of the street’s sidewalks completely filled with people.
Other times, their activism is more personal. In 2018, one member, Colleyville resident Dale Stowe, passed away. He was an Army combat medic in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, and he won the Bronze Star Medal for Valor and three Purple Hearts.
“He went in and pulled soldiers out from the line of fire,” says Perry Vargas, a Navy veteran and Southlake resident. “He got wounded several times, but he just kept pushing through. I miss him.”
In honor of Dale, Grapevine VFW sponsored a puppy from Patriot Paws, a program that raises and trains service dogs. When the puppy completes his training, he will go to a disabled veteran in need at no cost. Grapevine VFW even named the puppy after Dale and members will attend the dog’s graduation ceremony.
“We’re here for our community,” Bo says. “That’s why you establish places like this, so you can be surrounded by people with those same attitudes.”
From running fundraisers for Grapevine Police and Fire to holding canned food drives for needy families around the holidays, Grapevine VFW leaves nobody behind. That’s why Roy and Bo think it’s so important to support veterans in need, whether you join the post as an auxiliary member or come to one of its local events. It doesn’t matter if you were in the Army or the Navy, or if you served three years or 40 years — if you're a veteran, you have a home at Grapevine VFW.