ST. CLAIRSVILLE — James R. Lepic still values his experience as a specialist 4th class in the U.S. Army and is being recognized as the St. Clairsville American Legion veteran of the month.

“I joined the Reserves in 1964,” he said, adding he was 19 at the time.

“It was the Vietnam era, but the outfit I was in was an engineering battalion. I didn’t go to Vietnam. I discharged from active duty. The outfit I was in went to Vietnam, but I was already discharged and back home.”

Lepic trained in combat engineering. The possibility of deploying overseas was ever-present.

“We stayed active all the time. We constantly were alerted that we were going to be activated and sent to Vietnam. It never happened, but we practiced loading our vehicles on a regular basis,” Lepic said.

“I worked as a mechanic, and when they found out I could drive a semi, I … continued to do that the whole time I was in the military.”

He recalled pulling a bulldozer over the mountains. He also hauled tractor-trailers full of artillery shells to troops shooting over Lake Erie.

“I got to do a lot,” he said.

He said the Tet Offensive began in 1968 but had built up years prior

“We were put on alert as a Reserve unit that we were going to go active, but they had just come back from active duty because of the Berlin crisis of 1961, so they didn’t activate us in 1964,” he said.

“The military was interesting as a young man, because I grew up on a farm,” he said. “You got to see a lot of things. … It was the first time I was ever really away from home. I was 19 years old and right out of high school. … It was a real learning experience to become part of an elite group of people, the U.S. Army.”

Lepic said he joined because of a family tradition. His father served in World War II, and his mother’s brothers all joined the military in every branch of service during World War II.

After high school, many of his friends decided to join the 983rd Battalion in Bellaire, and he accompanied them.

“It was a feeling of patriotism that you wanted to serve your country. Times were different 50 years ago. It wasn’t ’til after Vietnam that people booed the soldiers coming home. Prior to that, in 1964 that didn’t happen. You respected everybody that served their country,” he said.

While the war was an unpopular one, Lepic said he only saw demonstrators on television. He calls his military experience positive, adding he learned discipline and patience, pride and confidence.

“The military taught you how to go from a young boy to a man, because you handled a rifle and you trained,” he said. “I grew up fast.

“I made a lot of good friends. Some of my finest memories are friends you hike besides and you shot besides,” he said. “They just become like family, like a brother to you.”

“We still fly the flag every single day in my yard,” he said. “I’m grateful for the military, for what they taught me. I grew up very fast, and it lasted and stayed with me.”

Lepic is a lifelong resident of St. Clairsville. In civilian life, he worked as a truck driver, then an electrician. He recently retired and is active with the Legion.