Louis “Lou” Mathieu of Westbrook reviews a photo album of his duty in Vietnam. Robert Lowell / American Journal

A Vietnam veteran this week recalled duty as a bosun’s (boatswain) mate aboard Navy assault river boats during the Vietnam War.

Louis “Lou” Mathieu, 76, Tuesday leafed through an album of photos stirring vivid memories. He recalled attacks on his boats, and the hot, humid weather. They ate combat rations leftover from 1944 and used Sterno to heat the food. Ration containers included four cigarettes – “The papers were yellow,” he said.

He and his crew sometimes tossed C-rations to hungry kids.

He did three 6-month tours in Vietnam. “We were just kids over there,” he said.

On Veterans Day, Mathieu, a former American Legion Post 62 commander, will be among veterans attending the ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery. A musician, he and his wife, Maureen, regularly entertain at the Veterans Home in Scarborough.

His family relocated in 1957 to Westbrook from Waterville when he was in fourth grade. He attended the former St. Mary’s Catholic School.

Mathieu hitched up in the Navy after graduating Westbrook High School in 1966. The war was just starting “to go strong,” he said.

“I thought the war would be over,” he said, by October that year.

The flag behind Louis “Lou” Mathieu in his living room flew over his assault boat in Vietnam. Robert Lowell / American Journal

After boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, Mathieu was accepted into the Navy’s hospital corpsman training. But he talked his way out of it before graduating after a Marine told him life expectancy for a medic in Vietnam was two weeks.

So, he was assigned to amphibious training and received orders to Assault Craft Division 13. After training in California, his unit went aboard a Navy amphibious ship for transport to Subic Bay in the Philippines. They flew into Vietnam.

He served as a coxswain in charge of assault boats. Some of those crafts, he said, were leftovers from the Normandy invasion in World War II. “We had scrap metal,” he said.

His unit, based out of Da Nang, ferried Marines up and down a river. They brought body bags back.

Supplies they delivered included containers of napalm. “It was like liquid fire,” he said.

“We got shot at, we were sitting targets,” he said. “I thought I’d be safe getting out of medic school.”

He kept a sidearm on his hip. His crew included two gunners mates with twin, .50 caliber guns, but they had to request permission from higher authority to return fire.

His craft, on one occasion taking on supplies, was tied up near the stern of a helicopter carrier that got underway unsuspecting they were still tied to it. He ordered a crewmember to cut a line to get free.

His boat rode out a hurricane and once survived being dead in the river because of engine failure.

By 1969, morale among troops in Vietnam was declining, he said, and guys were “counting the days to leave.”

When things got tough, he was inspired by the story of his father who survived being shot down over Germany in World War II.

After Vietnam duty and his enlistment fulfilled, Mathieu came home “happy.”

He worked at American Legion Memorial Post 197 for Freddie Porell and went to Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute studying law enforcement.

He landed a job in plant safety at paper company S.D. Warren.

Descended from of a long line of musicians from Quebec, Mathieu plays several stringed instruments. He ran a music shop in his garage for 15 years, teaching music and repairing instruments.

He played with several groups including the Saccarappa Boys and eventually became the group’s leader.

A highlight of his music career was singing “The Battle of New Orleans” at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.