Vince Gauthier, a lifelong Waitsfield resident, enlisted in the United States Army in 1965. He was 18 years old.
Gauthier trained at bases in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and Fort Jackson, South Carolina. From there, he went to do vehicle maintenance at a base in Aberdeen, Maryland, before getting sent to Baumholder, Germany, where he was stationed for about two years working on tanks and other machinery.
Several weeks after arriving in Germany, Gauthier’s wife Diana joined him. They got an apartment for $75 a month in the town of Heimbach, about 12 miles from the base. “Life in the barracks was not my choice of a way to live,” Guthier said, laughing, “with others always a few feet away from you, it wasn’t easy to sleep.”
The two of them found work in a movie theater in the evenings – with Gauthier selling tickets and cleaning up the theaters while Diana sold concessions. When their oldest daughter was born, she slept on a cot near the reel machine in the theater while they worked shifts.
With the extra income from the theater, on top of the roughly $107 that Gauthier was paid monthly by the Army, they traveled around Europe with their daughter, visiting Spain, Italy, France, and Holland.
The family returned to Waitsfield when she was 2 years old. Gauthier worked at a Mercedes-Dodge dealership and a few other places in The Valley, before apprenticing with an electrician at the now defunct Mad River Electric, with his hourly wages supplemented by the G.I. Bill.
He started a few local businesses over the years, too, including an auto body shop, an equipment rental business called Valley Rental and a small business incubator project in the Irasville Business Park, along with Robin Morris.
Gauthier said his time serving in the Army – three years of service nearly six decades ago – was overall a positive experience.
Perhaps the most valuable part, he recalled, was learning how to get along with people who came from different places and backgrounds – something he didn’t have much exposure to while growing up in The Valley. He also enjoyed time spent studying in military schools – where “they just challenged you to be a better version of yourself,” he said.
