Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial

Two more names were added in November for a new total of 1,799; plus additional missing information for names already on the list was added thanks to the continued following of this Project by the many readers of HixNews.  In our efforts to insure that no one is left behind who should be included in the Memorial, please continue to help us by reviewing the List of Names when you select the "click here" link near the bottom of this update with your computer mouse.  To speed the process, just use your class year or the years you may be familiar with as a reference and see if you have a new name or some missing data to email to us.  Class years, where known, are specifically shown to make this effort easier for our readers.  All missing data for names already on the list is shown in red, again making it easier for readers to see what's needed.

Per the Team Meeting held in early October, Bill Walden sent a letter to the Hicksville Superintendant of Schools to start the approval process to erect the Memorial at a specific location within the current Jerusalem Avenue (Middle) School Memorial Gardens or at HHS.  The Middle School had been the high school when the garden was established there and has continued to be the site for all military memorials established to honor Hicksville residents who served during the various wars fought by our country since WW1.  Bill also prepared publicity articles for release to the local and county press for our planned external publicity push (outside of HixNews).  The actual release to the press and follow up to Bill's letter regarding our proposed site were postponed due to the chaos of Hurricane Sandy.  Follow up with the school superintendant is planned for early December; however, given the current Holiday Season, the press releases will be delayed until early January.

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 (February,1961 through April,1975)
  • Both men and women qualify (We're stating this since, while continuing to add a number of women, we still have relatively few on the current list overall)

Our Project Team consists of the following HHS Alumni and Vietnam War Era Veterans:

·        Ken Strafer, Founder (HHS '62)

·        Joe Carfora, Project Coordinator & 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, 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, Cmdr of Hicksville VFW Post, Site Selection/Approval & Fundraising Leader (HHS '65)                                                   

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

Please click on the following link to review the current list of names:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmMG_lUq31y2dHE5THhfYlBMdWFQY1ZBdWFVN2UtZlE

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.

Thank you!

The Vietnam War Era Memorial Project Team

Footnote extracted from www.vietnamwar.co:  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.


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