As part of the We Honor Veteran Program, our VNA and Hospice volunteer was able to interview Edward Lawson at his home.
She was warmly welcomed by his wife Kathy and their son, Shaun, Shaun’s fiancée, Sam and Shaun’s two daughters, Amelia and Annabelle. Ed and Kathy’s youngest son Matt was also able to join us via facetime.
Kathy shared a collage of Ed’s various pictures while serving in the military over the years. She describes her husband as a kind and humble man who will forever remain her hero.
In addition to having the honor of presenting a certificate of appreciation and a pin to commemorate Ed’s military service to his country, the hospice volunteer had the added benefit of being able to pay tribute to his son Shaun. Both men appeared deeply moved to be able to share the tribute to commemorate their combined military service as father and son and veterans of the United States Navy.
Ed shared a story of dedication and commitment to his country and later community, which Kathy reports he has been able to continue throughout his life.
Even from the beginning, Ed cultivated an independent spirit which shaped his experiences when serving in the Armed Forces.
He was supporting himself and living on his own as a high school senior in Springfield, Illinois when he made the choice to join the Army National Guard.
He originally planned to train in the areas of helicopters/aviation/electronics but reports there was a miscommunication which led to what he calls a “disagreement”. He felt that he was given erroneous information about the training he was to receive, but he was able to transfer to a more preferred occupational skill set.
He was able to engage in basic military police training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. Post that training, he was told that to be able to switch to active-duty status, he would have to return to Illinois and repeat basic military police training. Ed once again refers to a “disagreement” in how he should proceed, which instead led him to enlist in the active-duty Navy in 1982.
After attending Navy boot camp in Chicago, Ed was interested and recruited for Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut. It was there that an instructor encouraged him to apply for and be granted approval for advanced specialized nuclear submarine electronics training at Virginia Beach. It was also there that he met a beautiful young woman at a military club. It took him several requests before she agreed to dance with him. By November of that year, she brought him home to Boston for Thanksgiving to meet her family, which has resulted in 41 years of marriage between Kathy and her hero, Ed.
From April 1982 to 1989, Ed was assigned to a ballistic missile submarine base in Holy Loch, Scotland. He was part of a blue and gold crew rotation. One crew would would be out to sea and be continuously submerged for 3 months while the other crew would be on furlough with families/friends. Then they would rotate and in Ed’s case, he would return to Kathy in the US.
Kathy remembers that it was hard to have very little real contact with Ed during those months. They could send an occasional letter, which took a long time to receive because they had to be reviewed and scrutinized before they could be delivered due to the secrecy of nuclear sub operations.
When Ed was denied a transfer to a different stateside assignment, he decided he was ready to be honorably discharged from the Navy in 1989.
That did not keep Ed from returning to serve his country once again when he joined a military police company in the Army National Guard out of Massachusetts in 1990.
There he attended monthly drills and was one of the members of his unit that was deployed to Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
After 4 months, he was sent home early related to medical concerns due to Kathy’s pregnancy with Matt. Three days later, Ed was present for his delivery.
After that Ed continued to serve in the Army National Guard and was assigned to a transportation unit at Fort Devens, MA.
Kathy gave us additional insight into Ed’s character when she discussed their move to Vermont in 2014.
She spoke of not knowing anybody in the small town they moved to. Ed and Kathy were grateful when a kind neighbor plowed out their driveway after an early snowfall.
Ed was surprised when he met that very neighbor, Joe Castle, when he went to register his motorcycle at the town office. He was also surprised when he came home and told Kathy that somehow Joe got him to join the town’s volunteer fire department!
Ed has forged strong friendships and has shown his sincere dedication to his community over the past 12 years. He has deeply valued his time serving in the Middletown Springs, VT Volunteer Fire Department. In turn, his family, friends and community have been blessed with getting to know and love a true hero, Edward Lawson.
