In honor of Veterans day today (November 11, 2024), WriteWay Publishing wanted to recognize one of our authors who is not only a Vietnam-era veteran himself, he writes about everyday Americans who carried out heroic actions in the service of their country.

Dennis Pregent is a fabulous author with four books to his credit. You can discover all of his books on his website at www.dennispregent.com.

Three of those books memorialize the stories of former military service members from the Berkshires in the highlands of western Massachusetts.

His latest book, Berkshire Heroes in WWII: With Courage and Honor, tells the stories of 28 heroes from the Berkshires who served in WWII.

Recently, I had the pleasure and honor of sitting down with Dennis to talk with him about his time in the service. It seems fitting to share a little about Dennis and what makes him such a great steward of the heroes’ stories that many of us would not otherwise have the luxury (and privilege) of hearing.

Dennis himself was a Marine who served two tours in Vietnam. 

He enlisted in the Marines in February 1965, which was a month before the Marines landed in Vietnam in March 1965.

During his six plus years of service, Dennis rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, a rise in rank that typically would take a longer time. By the time he was honorably discharged, he had received five Air Medals and gained the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Sword, a prestigious symbol of leadership and authority within the United States Marine Corps.

His time in the military gives him perspective and is what makes him the right person to tell the stories of other service members. That perspective comes shining through in his books.

His books capture and tell the stories of so many heroes. Stories that otherwise would be lost to the sands of time.

In our conversation, Dennis told me about his time in Vietnam. Walking patrols at night and being a door gunner of a HMM 263 Marine helicopter were part of his story.

He successfully flew over 100 missions in one month as a door gunner, with some of those missions at night. Miraculously, despite all the fire he encountered, he was never wounded.

Dennis is quietly proud of his time in the service, what he gained from it, and how it impacted his life.

As he shared, the Marines are a brotherhood. Being a Marine becomes engrained in one’s DNA he says. The responsibility and accountability that was learned as a Marine transformed a naive 17-year-old boy into a man of honor.

He has an enormous amount of respect for our flag and country. The Marines instilled in him a sense of discipline, belonging, and pride. All of this translated over to his life after his time in service.

As any Marine will tell you, there’s no such thing as a former Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

Dennis’s books chronicle that same kind of history for others across all branches of the service, preserving their stories so that we as a nation, we as citizens, can never forget the selfless sacrifices that were made by so many brave men and women, some of whom came home, some of whom didn’t as they made the ultimate sacrifice.

You owe it to yourself to grab a copy of one or all of his books and take a journey through history. You won’t be disappointed.