PATRIOTS CORNER
Patriots Corner
by American Patriot and American Veteran,
Benton J. Lovoi Jr. U.S.N.
This article does not necessarily represent Thunder Roads® LA/MS Magazine or its staff.
The other day one of my bosses Mike
Lodrigue (alias Slufoot) who reads my Thunder
Roads Mag. asked me if I wanted to interview
some veterans. Of course, I jumped at the
chance to do so. When I said where can I meet
these guys, he said that our other boss helps
some organization bring Vets fishing. Now
all of you people who write for the magazine
at this time are probably thinking the same
thing... in my mind who are these people? Who
is this organization that can step up and do
this for our vets? My questions would soon be
answered and so much more.
So, after work at Slufoot (Mike Lodrigue) and
my other boss and owner of the company Gene
Caro (one of the sponsors) and I head to the
camp in Cocodrie, LA. I started to ask questions
about the people who are putting on this
fishing trip for vets they inform me that there
is a 96 year old Veteran there the oldest living
veteran of WWII which I could only imagine
the history this man would tell me which I will
tell later in the article. Trying to find out about
who was putting this event on was like pulling
teeth. It was like they didn’t understand the
importance of this group.
We get to the camp and I start asking
questions about sponsors. They started to
tell me about the Veterans and at this point
I realized these guys were like zoned in on
showing these vets a good time, great food
and amazing fishing. But I finally got a hold
of the people who started the event. Joe Lauer
and Ladd Naquin, two really great guys with
big hearts. Joe Lauer runs probably the only
really, true non-profit organization in the
world out of Texas. Joe is with Trinity Oaks. I
know you never heard of it either but it’s one
awesome organization, you have to check it out
at trinityoaks.org. (More on that towards the
end of the article.) Five years ago, Joe and Ladd
decided to take 15 wounded Vets for a fishing
trip and get local businesses to donate. Well
donate they did. I know what you’re saying,
“this has gone on for five years and I never
heard of it why?” Same thing I said. It’s called
Trinity Heros South Louisiana Fishing trip.
Everything is donated from the use of the camp
to the people cooking and serving the food.
They take 15 different wounded vets every
year on a fishing all-expense paid fishing trip,
which I think is awesome because you don’t
hear about things like this with hardly any
company’s ever. Here are the men and their
companies that help our Heroes: Joe Lauer
Ladd Naquin, Paul Naquin, Platinum Chemical,
Travis Carrell, Tate Boudreaux, Integrity Oilfield,
Dave Bourgeois, Buckhorn Services, Donavon
Savoie, Energy Completion Services, Claude
Seago, John Stevens, Bay Water, Gene Caro,
and Gulf Inland Contractors. If you know one of
these men or if you ever meet one shake their
hand. It takes a special person to be a hero and
our Vets are Heroes! These men are that in my
opinion. They volunteer to help Vets have a
great fishing trip. What makes it more amazing
to me is none of the men I mentioned are
Veterans, none of them. They just get it. They
understand what our troops have done and
what they will do.
Joseph William Richard, Shipfitter 1st Class is
one of the Veterans I had the honor of talking
with, 96 years old! He was in Hawaii on that
day. Yes, December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was
bombed, and Joseph William Richard was
there. He was on Pier 13, aboard the U.S.S
24 Thunder Roads® Magazine LA/MS Gulf Coast | July 2019 | www.thunderroadslams.com
Regal. He told me about the bombing, how
the pilots of the Japanese planes dropping
the torpedoes were so low he could see them
smiling and waving just to insult more, as if
the bombing wasn’t enough. He was one of
the sailors cutting holes in the bottom of their
capsized ship. The men would be knocking
on the hull of the ship so search parties could
hear them. The cut holes saved several sailors.
At one point they were told they had to stop
cutting for fear of blowing up everything. There
was enough fuel in the water and everywhere
else to have killed them all, so they stopped
cutting. The men trapped in the ship were still
knocking on the hull of the ship for help. All
Petty Officer Richard could do was listen to the
knocking day after day. They were not allowed
to knock back, so as not to give false hope to
the trapped. The responders with Petty officer
Richard continued to hear the knocking day
after day until the day before Christmas, when
the knocking stopped. Petty Officer Richard just
knew the men had passed. I placed my hand
on his shoulder and as I did he looked at me
and said, “ I still hear the knocking to this day,“
and a tear rolled down his cheek. He wound up
doing 14 years in the military where he was
even called back to serve time in the Korean
war.
While I hate giving Hollywood any credit,
Joseph William Richard said the movie was
almost exact to what happened. It was an
Honor to hear history from the source himself.
One more thing if you have the time look up
Trinity Oaks at trinityoaks.org, it is an amazing
group who do so much more.
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