Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 2 : Fall 2010 | Page 25

eters
Ken P

Vietnamese Chief of Police and various other agents and
officials. “We were looking for the Viet Cong infrastructure,
in other words, the hidden gunmen that were in all of the
villages and all of the cities.” The nature of the task made it
more difficult to locate them in the cities and villages than
in the jungle. As Peters described it, “I was always alone
with my interpreter and I was always among the people,
never knowing who was the good guy and who was the bad
guy.”

What separated Vietnam from previous wars was
the reaction of the American public back home. Soldiers
would be greeted in airports by jeering crowds who were
protesting not only the war in Vietnam, but also the soldiers
who fought it. This had damaging effects for many of the
veterans who felt that they were just doing their duty for
their country and their government. Peters remembers
how the Viet Cong launched attacks on American bases,
timing the assaults to happen at the same time as the
protests back home. “They were using the protests
and if they could kill off a lot of us, then it would
reinforce what the protesters were saying.” Events like
Woodstock and the Kent State shootings provoked
massive attacks by the North Vietnamese soldiers,
which would, in turn, urge on the protestors. Peters
pointed out that Americans came to understand
the struggles that the Vietnam veterans were going
through, and gradually, professional help was
made available. He observed, “…they had anger,
a lot of things built up inside them. It was such a different
type of war, the first time that the US had been in that type
of war. I think that the government has learned from the
experiences of the Vietnam vet.” After coming home from
the war, Peters gave talks at schools throughout Aroostook
County, teaming up with other veterans and discussing the
repercussions that were felt by the returning Vietnam vets.
Peters went on to graduate school at Orono and later came
back to Aroostook, to teach again in Caribou and after that,
Fort Fairfield. In Fort Fairfield, he worked in everything
from remedial reading to becoming the principal of the
middle school, and has greatly enjoyed his years of living in
the area.

The County has had more servicemen and women
deployed abroad over the last several years with the
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shawn Rogers, a lifelong
resident of Aroostook, served in Iraq. In 2001, he joined
the National Guard, went through basic training and was
deployed to work with the border patrol to conduct searches
and work in security. It was during his basic training that
9/11 happened, and the US geared up for the invasion of
Afghanistan and later, Iraq. Rogers recalled, “At the time, we
thought that it was just the National Guard, and we weren’t
going anywhere; but it was still pretty serious because there
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