May 2009 : Volume 9 - Issue 8 - Honoring our Veterans

Honoring our Veterans

This month, once again one topic, no distractions, another story that must never be forgotten.

April 30, 1975... 34 Years Ago

Pacific Stars and Stripes - Vol. 31 No. 12 - Thursday May 1, 1975

IT'S OVER

Saigon - The United States [has] pulled out of Vietnam... All but a handful of Americans fled the country aboard Marine helicopters by early Wednesday [April 30, 1975], and left it up to the Vietnamese to find peace. The Americans were ordered out Tuesday by new President Duong Van Minh to meet one of the Communist's major conditions for peace talk - an end to the U.S. presence.

Two Years and Three Months Before...

January 27, 1973: The cease-fire agreement which had guaranteed the United States, in President Nixon's words, "Peace with honor," would, in fact, last less than a year.

March 29, 1973: The last remaining American combat troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come." Yet, by 1974, the war had restarted.

December 13, 1974: North Vietnam violates the Paris peace treaty and tests President Ford's resolve by attacking Phuoc Long Province in South Vietnam. President Ford responds with diplomatic protests but no military combat forces, this in compliance with the Congressional ban on all U.S. military combat activity in Southeast Asia.

March 1975: A strategic retreat ordered by South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu quickly turned into a rout.

April 18, 1975: Sensing that the end of the war was near, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered all U.S. citizens in South Vietnam to leave immediately. Operation Frequent Wind became the largest helicopter evacuation in history. Nearly seven thousand people, including fourteen hundred Americans, were airlifted to U.S. ships waiting offshore.

April 30, 1975: The end came on at 4:58 a.m., a CH-46 helicopter, call sign "Lady Ace 09," flown by Capt. Jerry Berry, transported US Ambassador Graham A. Martin from the Saigon embassy roof to the waiting US fleet. At 7:53 a.m., the last helicopter lifted off, carrying Marine personnel who had been defending the embassy.


--- --- Walt Schmidt Veteran Services Officer 
- - --- TOBay's Veteran Services Division 
- - - - "Let No Veteran Ever Stand Alone!" 
--- --- WorkDayTime: 516.797.7875 & 24/7 Voice Mail 
- - --- Anytime: 24/7 Voice Mail 516.799.8300 
- - - - Website: http://www.waltsdorsai.net/ 
Ken Sun - Weekly Column: http://experts.longisland.com/veterans

"To know yet to think that one does not know is best; 
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty." 
- Lao-Tzu 71:1

Hicksville Vietnam War Era Proposed Memorial

An effort has been underway for quite some time now with hopes of dedicating a Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial Monument at a frequently visited site in Hicksville (such as Hicksville High, Hicksville Town Hall, etc.) sometime in 2010 once we have exhausted the possibility of finding Veterans who served on active duty during that era and once we have the approval from the necessary Hicksville authorities to do so.

We have a current problem, however.  Until recently, the project founder, Ken Strafer (HHS 1962) and his key staff assistant, Joe Carfora (HHS 1962) were working without additional help and through time to time announcements in HixNews to seek additional names.  After a couple of years, this brought us only to 150 or so names.  Since the March 1 update we posted in HixNews and after adding additional help to our team from members of other classes, we have brought the current list of names to 222 in less than two months!

As a result, we have chosen a path of much broader distribution in our search for the names of people who qualify to be included in the Memorial.  We are using the Class of '59 website for this purpose and have now approached the reunion leaders of other classes for help in identifying people not already included on our current list.  We know that we have only scratched the surface so far.

To qualify for the Memorial, a person must have been on active duty in one of our Armed Forces during the Vietnam Era, but did not necessarily have to serve in Vietnam, because by being in the service at that time a person was exposed to the possibility of being sent to Vietnam and was overall an integral part of strengthening our Armed Forces during a time of war. 

Here are the overall qualifications for a person to be included in the Memorial list.  The person:

• must have been a resident of Hicksville at some time before entering our Armed Forces
• must have attended a public, private or parochial high school while living in Hicksville (attendance at HHS not required)
• must have served on active duty anywhere in the world during America's Vietnam Era (1961-1973 per www.vietnamwar.com history timeline)
• Note that both men and women qualify (I'm stating this as we have very few women on our current list)

We have set a goal of 250 names by this summer and know there are many more that served out there who meet these qualifications, but have yet to be identified by the project team.  We have access to official records in Washington, D.C. but have found that many people left Hicksville before entering the service and show a different town or city as their home at the time of entry.  So, we need to continue this grassroots effort and will also continue to use the official records we have access to as a means of confirmation of all personnel on the list.

Our Project Team currently has the following members:

-        Ken Strafer, Founder (HHS '62)

-        Joe Carfora, Assistant & Master List Keeper (HHS '62)

-        Carl Probst, Input Data, Class of '59 & Others (HHS '59)

-        Tony Plonski, Input Data, Class of '64 & Others (HHS '64)

-        Pat Driscoll, Editor, HixNews (HHS '56)

-        Tommy Sullivan, Press Release Editing (HHS '63)

-        Walter Schmidt, Hicksville Local Coordinator & Town of Oyster Bay Veterans Services Officer (HHS '65)

What we need each person reading this to do:

Please review the attached list of names.  If you know of someone who is not listed, please send their name and what you can about their service to Joe Carfora at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Please use the information contained on the attached list as a guide for the data we need.

Thank you!

The Vietnam War Era Project Team

Footnote extracted from www.vietnamwar.com:  During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed in action, including 8000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths. 153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees. Over 2400 American POWs/MIAs were unaccounted for as of 1973.