Operation Tidal Wave

...was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on nine oil refineries around Ploieşti , Romania on 1 August 1943, during WWII.. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the "oil campaign" to deny petroleum based fuel to the Axis. The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output", and so was unsuccessful.

This mission was one of the costliest for the USAAF in the European Theatre, 53 aircraft and 660 aircrewmen were lost. It was the worst loss ever suffered by the USAAF on a single mission, and its date was later referred to as "Black Sunday." Five Congressional Medals of Honor  (CMOH) and numerous Distinguished Service Crosses (DSC's) were awarded to Operation Tidal Wave crew members.

 

Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial

147 new names were added in February!  The current total is now 1,286.  More names continue to come in from the work at the Library and the continuing contributions of our entire Alumni.  During the past month we also succeeded in filling in a number of blanks in the data next to previously recorded names and you can continue to help with this by scanning the list of names using your class year or years you may be familiar with to see if you have something to add.

Memorial Qualifications:  A person must have been on active duty in one of our Armed Forces during the Vietnam Era.  The person did not necessarily have to serve in Vietnam, because by being in service at that time he or she faced the possibility of being sent to Vietnam and was an integral part of strengthening our Armed Forces during a time of war. 

Overall qualifications include:

  • 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 the www.vietnamwar.com history timeline)
  • Both men and women qualify (We're stating this as we still have very few women on the current list)

While we have accumulated 1,286 names, we know there are still more people out there who served and meet these qualifications, but have yet to be identified.  Rough estimates indicate we should be able to collect between 2 and 3 thousand names.  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 grass roots effort and will also continue to use official records as a means of confirmation of all personnel on the list. 

Our Project Team consists of the following members:

·        Ken Strafer, Founder (HHS '62)

·        Joe Carfora, Master List (HHS '62)

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

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

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

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

·        Joe Ingino, Veterans Advocate, Hicksville & Long Island (HHS '67)

·        Jay Tranchina, Input Data, Class of '64 & Others, plus local press contact (HHS 1964)

·        Bill Walden, Commander of Hicksville VFW Post (HHS '65)                                                   

Here's what we continue to need from each person reading this to do:

Please click on the following link and review the current list of names: Click Here

If you know of someone who is not listed, or if you have information we are still missing, please send what you have to Joe Carfora at jcarfora1@nc.rr.com.  Please use the information contained on the current list as a guide for the data we need.

With the tremendous growth our list has seen over the past number of months, it continues to be very important for interested Alumni to review the list of classmates names with the hope of supplying us with the information we are still missing next to the names of many individuals.  The missing information is marked in red with question marks on the spreadsheet to make it simpler for you to see what's needed.

Thank you!

The Vietnam War Era Memorial 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.

To access a huge list of veteran related websites that offer assistance, visit http://buffalobobcasale.com