Honoring our veterans: Ken Bivens, U.S. Army & Vietnam War veteran from Highland
Vietnam War Veteran Ken Bivens, born Nov. 11, 1946, in Alton, was the eldest of three children of Clifford and Hope Bivens. He had a younger brother and sister. They lived in rural Moro.
Among his many happy childhood memories was playing outside with cousins and delighting his pallet with his mother’s and grandmother’s homemade dishes, especially fresh peach cobbler. He recalls his paternal grandfather as having an ornery streak.
When Ken was about 14 and he and his brother were bicycling home from the school bus stop, their route took them right in front of their grandpa’s house. They interacted with him every day inasmuch grandpa was sitting on the front porch, locked and loaded with his BB gun and the boys came under friendly-fire.
“We peddled as fast as we could,” said Ken. “So we wouldn’t get shot. Sometimes he got lucky and hit his target. He never hurt us, it was just his way of having fun with us.”
Ken said his parents emphasized the importance of being honest and having respect for others.
He graduated from Edwardsville High School in 1964 and acknowledged he was not scholastically inclined.
“Dad always told us to come home with C’s or better,” said Ken, a Highland resident. “I always met the standard and never even brought home a book.”
After graduation, Ken attended Rankin Trade School to become skilled in Automotive Maintenance Technology, which he completed in 1966.
The Vietnam War was revving up and Ken was drafted into the U.S. Army in September 1966. He completed his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and his Advanced Individual Training at Fort Lewis, Washington, as a Senior Wheel Vehicle Mechanic.
Ken arrived in Vietnam in September 1967. Although he said he felt apprehensive, he knew this was what he was supposed to do. In January 1968, he was assigned to the 245th Surveillance Aircraft Company, 1st Aviation Brigade, located south of Danang at a place called Marble Mountain.
“Our unit flew reconnaissance missions and photographed the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,” remembers Ken.
“Then we supported the 1st Marine Division north of Danang to the Demilitarized Zone, between South and North Vietnam. When arriving at marble mountain we would be billeted in tents on the sands of the South China Sea. Later the CDs are elected wooden barracks greatly improving our situation.”
He vividly recalls, “the enemy periodically shooting mortars and rockets at our airplanes and facilities, trying to blow us up; they got a few.”
In a separate incident, the VC and NVA had offensive actions aimed at their facilities. On the last night of January 1968, the NVA launched the TET offensive, coordinated operations at many locations across South Vietnam, including Marble Mountain.
“We saw Puff the Magic Dragon, an AC-47 gunship with a battery of mini-guns that terminated the onslaught,” said Ken. “The United States Marine Corp took care of them.”
Life after Vietnam
After 11 months and 23 days, Ken got to come home. It was not long until his cousin introduced him to Beverly Bartles.
“She was pretty and smart and we got along; that was the criteria for me,” quipped Ken.
They courted for a year and married Oct. 26, 1969, in the United Church of Christ in Edwardsville.
Ken began working for a trucking firm and later became employed by Airfield Industrial Gasses, AIRCO, in Alton. Ultimately he worked for Shell Oil Refinery in Wood River for the next 15 years.
He worked his way up from a mechanic to a senior trucking associate. Opting for an early-out, Ken then worked for RWD Technologies Business Construction Firm as a senior consultant for the next 15 years. He also taught business management related courses at Greenville, Kaskaskia and Lincoln Land colleges for many years.
During the course of their marriage, the Bivens family grew to include three daughters, Dana, Kris and Carrie. Ken retired in 2015 and fully planned to spend his golden years enjoying his family. Sadly, his beloved Beverly passed away from cancer July 22, 2017.
Since then, he began living with his daughter, Dana, and her two sons, Elijah and Isaac. He is an active member of Highland’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5694 and sings tenor for his home church, Evangelical Church of Christ.
In addition to the two aforementioned grandsons, he also has grandsons Clayton, Braxton and Benjamin and one granddaughter, Lauren.