Vietnam veteran receives Quilt of Valor
Returning from Vietnam was, by many accounts, not a pleasant one for soldiers returning to the States, who faced a less-than warm homecoming. It wasn’t quite so bad for a then-22-year-old Keith Dumos, but one thing does stand out to him.
“It was so quiet; it just about drove me batty I was so used to the noise,” he said. “We had helicopters landing day and night all around us, and there was an artillery unit about a mileand- a-half over banging away. There was a lot of noise, and you get used to the noise. I got back to Minnesota, it was so silent, I could hardly sleep.”
Dumos, of Currie, recently received his Quilt of Valor as a warm thank-you for his service.
“I was surprised, I tell you that,” he said of the recognition. “I really didn’t expect it. I looked around and all my relations where there, and I thought, ‘What the hell is going on here?’” Dumos served in the U.S. Navy-Seabees from 1967-1971 as a BU3 Builder 3rd Class Petty Officer. A Seabee is a member of the U.S. Navy Mobile Construction Battalion, a force that builds and maintains infrastructure for the Navy and Marine Corps, both in peacetime and during war.
He served in NMCB (Naval Mobile Construction Battalion) 133 Gulfport (MS) Port Hueneme in northern California.
Dumos said the Seabees are not a combat outfit, per se, as they served as a major support group for their fellow servicemen. He and his fellow Seabees at one time even built a Marine base for the south Vietnamees and U.S. troops fighting the North.
“I was four years in the Navy, and I never set foot on a ship,” said Dumos. “The Army guys and the Marines came in — sometimes they were out there in the bush for 10 days, two weeks — they could get a hot meal, they could have a bed to sleep in, they could take a shower — we got all that made for them.”
Looking back, Dumos said he initially thought about going into the Marine Corps, but his father, a soldier in World War II, had other ideas for him.
“He said, ‘You don’t want to be in the Army, and you don’t want to be in the Marine Corps — that’s kind of dangerous business,’” said Dumos.
After returning to Minnesota, Dumos started what would be a 55-year carpentry career, working for Schmidt Construction out of Westbrook. After that, he and a friend went out on their own. He lives in Currie with his wife, Roxanne; the two raised three daughters together.
Dumos earned the National Defense Service Medal, Expert Rifleman Medal, Vietnam Service Medal (one bronze star) and the Vietnam Campaign Medal.
