PHAN E-3 Roger Boilard / United States Navy

It’s been said that for every service member firing on the enemy, nine other service members are standing behind him/her providing various forms of support. PHAN E-3 Roger Boilard of the US Navy was one of those nine support people.

PHAN is not an abbreviation you commonly see – even in the military. It stands for Photographer Airman/Navy. Boilard spent his military career repairing photographic cameras of all types, processing film, and shooting photos.

Boilard grew up in Nashua, graduating from Nashua High School in 1970. Shortly after, he decided to enlist in the Navy and in so doing, would be able to choose his MOS (Military Occupation Specialty). At the time, the Vietnam War was raging. He figured being on a ship was way better than trudging through a jungle. Boilard met with the local Navy recruiter, signed up for the Navy and to be a Navy photographer; then was off to the Great Lakes training center in Illinois.

With his boot camp completed, the Navy tried to ship Boilard off overseas. He reminded them that he signed up for photography. Days later, he was on his way to a Navy training center in Pensacola, Florida where he learned to the finer points of photography. “I was already interested in photography”, said Boilard. “This knowledge would make me that much better.” Once his training was complete. Boilard stayed on at this post until around 1972. Later, the Navy sent Boilard to school to learn how to repair cameras.

“I was next sent to Gitmo on Cuba,” said Boilard. “I don’t know why the Navy sent me there. They did not need a photographer technician. They didn’t know what to do with me so, for a few weeks, I was put in charge of a power plant.

Then, the Navy made Boilard a lifeguard and safety instructor eventually getting to the point where he was certifying new lifeguards. “It was tough duty”, said Boilard. “I spent most of my days sitting on the beach in Cuba.”

One day, Boilard got to use all his lifeguard training. He explains: “I was sitting on the beach scanning the water just offshore. On any given day, there could be loads of coconuts bobbing along in the water. On this one day, one of those coconuts caught my eye. It wasn’t bobbing like the others. I looked closer and the coconut had hands and arms! It was a little girl caught way out over her head.” Needless to say, Boilard swam out to get her. Neither girl or lifeguard were any the worse.

While on Cuba, Boilard discovered scuba diving and regularly went spearfishing. He and other service members would catch a fair amount of fish. Then, on a Friday night, friendly Cubans and Jamaicans would come around, help the men cook the fish and they would have a big fish-fry.

Around 1973 Boilard was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forestal, CVA59 as a photographic repair tech. Boilard explains, “I not only repaired your basic hand-held cameras, but also the cameras attached to aircraft. Some of the pilots carried their own 35MM camera in the cockpit. I set them up so the pilot didn’t have to fiddle with the camera to take a shot. They just had to point and shoot.”

While deployed, the Forestal took a couple of trips through the Mediterranean. Boilard notes, “I could only speak English and most of the people in these countries like Spain and Italy only spoke their native language. But I learned to communicate with them by making hand gestures or pointing to this or that. What I found is that people are people no matter where you go in the world.”

Boilard continues, “I had a buddy on the ship and we would go everywhere together on shore leave. He taught me how to play the guitar. One of my fondest memories was walking around a small Italian town. My buddy and I were both playing guitars and we were singing Beatles songs. It attracted a small crowd.”

Boilard spent a little over four years in the Navy, mustering out in September 1975. Fortunately, he was able to put his Navy training to good use repairing and servicing cameras. He opened a small camera repair shop in the basement of a Nashua business… and began to grow. He started repairing cameras for other businesses. At the time. Lechmere was a large chain of retail stores all over the US – that also happened to have a thriving camera department. He started doing repairs for Lechmere causing him to add up to 17 people to his shop including techs and administrative people. It got to a point where he needed more techs and couldn’t find them so he worked with the State of NH employment system. The state would send people to Boilard who needed training to do a new job, either because they could no longer physically do their prior job, or their prior job became obsolete. Boilard’s contract with Lechmere was about to go national – when Lechmere went bankrupt and stores began closing in rapid succession.

Today, Boilard is still in Nashua, managing office space in several downtown Nashua buildings… and occasionally repairing a camera or two.

US Service Personnel Profiles
 By Gary Ledoux  January 7, 2025