Vice-Mayor Richard Erskine of the Town of Iron Gate recalls the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and what happened once the news reached South Korea where he was stationed.
Erskine recalled, “We were put on alert when the news reached our base, and our leaders did not know how the North Koreans would react to the news.”
He explained that the alert remained in effect for an entire week but that the North Koreans did not react aggressively during the alert.
A graduate of Rainelle High School, Erskine joined the army six and a half days after he graduated, and he spent eight weeks in basic training.
After gaining skills in communications in advanced infantry training at Fort Jackson, S. C., he was flown by the US Air Force to Calif. where he remained for four days before boarding a troop ship.
While serving with the 7th Infantry Division on a peacekeeping mission in Codo Shan, Korea at Camp Casey, Erskine heard the tragic news about JFK.
He remembered, “We got woke up at 6:00 a.m., and they told us Kennedy had been killed.”
Erskine continued, “We didn’t know what the North Koreans were going to do, and as it turned out, they didn’t do anything.”
Sent back to the West Coast after his tour of duty in South Korea, Erskine noted, “We crossed the Pacific on a troop carrier in 18 days, and after reaching San Francisco, they flew me home to Rainelle for 30 days.”
Next, he was then assigned to serve at Fort Belvoir, Va., in 1964 where he worked in communications.
“In Aug. of 1965, our entire battalion of engineers and construction workers were flown from Va. to San Francisco,” he reminisced.
His trip across the Pacific Ocean took 18 days before his battalion reached South Vietnam.
Erskine revealed, “I spent 10 months and 20 days in Vietnam, but to my knowledge, I was never shot at.”
He served much of his time in Vietnam at Cam Rahn Bay where he helped build a supply depot.
After his tour of duty in Vietnam, he was flown to Alaska and from there to Fort Dix, N.J.
Erskine held the rank of E-4 when he was honorably discharged from the US Army, and he returned home in July of 1966.
Soon after his return, he found work at Hercules in Covington, but his job was short-lived in that he was laid off shortly after being hired.
He said, “After being laid off at Hercules, I went to work for the Clifton Forge & Waynesboro Telephone Company and spent the next 35 years with the company before retiring.”
Erskine specialized in working as a cable splicer, both of copper and fiber.
He has two daughters from his first marriage in 1966. They are Tammy Bunshoe who lives in Ky. and Melanie Erskine. Each daughter has given him two grandchildren.
Richard married Patricia Gilly from Pulaski in 1995, and he adopted her daughter, Tanny Delp.
After retiring from Ntelos, the name of the company that bought out the Clifton Forge & Waynesboro Telephone Company, Richard worked for Kroger for three years.
Richard revealed, “I had a part-time job with Walt Disney for a while too.”
He is an active member of VFW-Burnside Carpenter Post 4299 which meets in the Clifton Forge Armory on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 4:00 p.m.
In 2019, Richard spent eight weeks in Oct. and Nov. in the V. A. Hospital in Salem where he battled cancer, and he asked the doctors about agent-orange, whether or not it was the cause.
Richard concluded, “I questioned them about that, but I haven’t found out anything.”
As vice-mayor of Iron Gate, he substitutes for ceremonial duties when Mayor Chuck Unroe is not available. On Monday, April 11, he represented the Town of Iron Gate by signing two proclamations at the Covington City Hall.
Joining in the signing session were Shannon Cox, a member of the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors; Tom Sibold, Mayor of the City of Covington; and Jeff Irvine, Mayor of the Town of Clifton Forge.
The two proclamations Richard signed are “National Crime Victims’ Rights Week,” April 24-30; and “Better Speech and Hearing Month,” May 2022.