Residents Support War Memorial Improvements

As reported in last week’s issue of The Garden City News, Garden City resident and Vietnam veteran Cyril Smith has submitted a proposal to the Board of Trustees to improve the Village’s veterans’ memorial. The following are letters written to the Mayor and/or Board in support of the plan:

Subject: LiCalzi Family Support of Consolidation, Movement and Upgrade of the Village’s Veterans Memorial to include Plaque for Residents Killed in Iraq/Afghanistan

Dear Mayor Rothschild and Trustees,

The intent of this letter is to express the complete and unqualified support of our family for the proposed changes to the Village’s Veterans Memorial. Cyril Smith has kept us advised about the progress to-date. As you probably are aware, our son 1ST LT Michael L. LiCalzi USMC died in Iraq on May 11, 2006. We would very much like the Village to honor and remember one of its children with a new plaque for servicemen who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael was raised in Garden City, where we lived on Poplar Street for 23 years, and attended kindergarten through 8th grade in the Garden City Public Schools. While in elementary and middle school he was an altar server at St. Joseph’s, played sports on the CYO, Little League and Middle School teams, and participated in all of the activities that our Village had to offer. He then attended Chaminade HS and was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in 2004. Many of his old friends from elementary and high school still live in the Village. (More information about Michael and his sacrifice for our country can be found at the web site www.aceinheholefoundation.org.)

We tell you these few things about Michael because we would like you to know that he was proud to be from Garden City and always looked forward to coming home when on leave from the Naval Academy and the USMC. It is also important to mention that when Michael died we were very touched and comforted by the outpouring of support from our Garden City friends and Poplar Street neighbors, the GC Police and Fire Departments, St. Joseph’s Parish, the American Legion and the local media, among others.

In that regard, we also support the request that a virtual wall technology be approved to supplement the physical memorial. The website mentioned above has been a very good way of personalizing Michael, and for allowing family, friends and his fellow Marines to remember him. In turn, each visitor can see the other commemorations; it is quite effective and especially helpful to us, given our new home in Florida.

You may not be aware that the Town of Hempstead, through the efforts of Supervisor Kate Murray and Councilman Ed Ambrosino, created a memorial for Michael in 2008. This memorial can be found at the Town’s Lido West Beach and it includes a surfboard rack and a dedicated portion of the internal roadway now known as “1ST LT Michael L. LiCalzi Path.” This is a very fitting location because Michael learned to surf at this beach with his friends from Garden City.

Thank you for your consideration of this proposal. If we can be of any assistance please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Greg & Carol LiCalzi

Celebration, FL

Dear Mayor Rothschild,

Forty two years ago today, my cousin, Robert M. Finnegan (age 20), gave his life for his country on a battlefield in Vietnam. He was killed while defending Tan Son Nhut Airbase (Saigon) from a massive attack during the Tet Offensive of January 1968. When his country called, my cousin left his home and family in Garden City to proudly serve his country and hometown. His service and his ultimate sacrifice should be forever memorialized as an example of true patriotism and selflessness to present and future residents of Garden City and this nation.

As such, I am requesting your earnest support in efforts to upgrade the Garden City Veterans Memorial. Specifically, I seek your support in memorializing the names of the Garden City residents killed while serving in the Vietnam War. I also ask that a “Virtual wall” be established as a supplement. A “Virtual wall” would allow me and others, including surviving family members, to commemorate and share our appreciation of his service and sacrifice.

As you are aware, the sacrifices of the soldiers in Vietnam have often been overlooked by this nation. I am personally requesting that you, as Mayor of Garden City, lead the efforts to properly honor the sacrifices of past, present and future soldiers who made and will make the ultimate sacrifice for their country and hometown. His country and his hometown held great meaning to Bobby Finnegan; your efforts would express how much he meant to the residents of Garden City.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Robert V. Campbell

Islip, NY

Dear Mayor Rothschild and Board Members:

As the widow of 1st Lt. Timothy J. Shorten, USMC, killed in action in Vietnam on March 31, 1968 and a posthumous winner of the Silver and Bronze Stars, as well as a Purple Heart, I have been greatly interested in the proposals presented by Cyril Smith pertaining to better honoring those who gave their lives for our country, particularly those involved in the Vietnam conflict. I feel that many of them did not really receive the honor bestowed on those killed in previous wars due to the conflicted feelings which the Vietnam War raised in our citizens.

Tim was not just a casualty number - he was a lifelong resident of Garden City who graduated from St. Anne’s School and Chaminade HS, where he played football, before attending Holy Cross College. He later became a Social Studies teacher at St. Agnes Cathedral HS in Rockville Centre. His interest and belief in the domino theory of containing Communism led him to give up his teaching deferment and volunteer for military service at a time when many in our generation were scrambling to find jobs which would give them such deferments. He planned to apply to law school after his enlistment ended and had hoped to eventually use those skills in public service by running for office.

His late parents were long-time Garden City residents. Tim’s father, John A. Shorten, had a law practice for years on New Hyde Park Road and was a longtime chairman of the Garden City Zoning Board of Adjustment. His mother, Dolores, volunteered at St. Anne’s School.

I am also a previous 17-year resident of Garden City, having lived on Merillon Avenue and Wellington Road after my remarriage. My four children attended Garden City schools and remain in contact with many friends from their days growing up in your village. My oldest son recently attended the Garden City High School 20th reunion even though we moved to New Jersey prior to his junior year.

In his brief teaching career, Tim made a big impression on his students. His death was a big topic of discussion at a 40th reunion of St. Agnes alumni. One of them discovered my e-mail address on a Vietnam Memorial Wall site and asked if she could give out my information to the other members of her class. As a result, I have been hearing from several of them for over a year. One of the students, who now lives in Washington State, forwarded a column she had written for a newspaper there about Tim and how the nuns announced his death to the students in an assembly and implied that it was their bad behavior which caused Tim to leave teaching. I was able to assuage their long-felt guilt by explaining to them Tim’s real motives for his career change.

At the very least, I believe that any new memorial should have the actual names of the dead listed. As a former elected official in my town, and former Town Clerk, I have had many dealings with our local VFW Post and know that the towns here in Bergen County normally do list the individual names on their memorials. A Virtual Wall, as I have related above, can be a way of interested parties re-connecting and a place for those growing up in town and attending Garden City schools, who were not yet born during those conflicts, to learn about the dead as people and realize that they once walked the Garden City streets and played on the school fields just as students do now.

In conclusion, any actions you choose to take do not benefit me personally. I no longer have reason to walk along Seventh Street and need no memorial to help me remember Tim. Those memories have been seared into my heart. However, Garden City should have a proper memorial area to remind those who grow up there now of the sacrifices made by its former residents. Remember the saying: “Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

Sincerely,

Darlene (Shorten) Schnure

Woodcliff Lake, NJ

Dear Sir,

I understand you are in the process of considering an upgrading of the Veteran’s Memorial area in Garden City to include the names of the Garden City youths who gave their lives in both Vietnam and Korea.

This is of great interest to me as I was both born and raised in Garden City and lost a brother in Vietnam.

My brother, Philip F. Sheridan, Jr. was only 19 years old when he was killed on Hill 881 near KheSahn, Vietnam. That means he wasn’t long out of Garden City High. It was Easter Sunday in 1968, and he was on a volunteer mission for an exhausted forward observer who had been fighting all day. Phil asked to take his place and was granted permission. An hour later he was dead.

While all this might be a distant memory to some, to others it might as well be yesterday. I was 13 years old and a student at Garden City Junior High that spring. I have spent a lifetime trying to accept the loss of such a wonderful young man, and it wasn’t made any easier by the tone of the times and the lack of respect that Vietnam veterans were given at that time.

I believe it would be a great thing to record Phil’s sacrifice, as well as the sacrifices of all the other men and women of Garden City who lost their lives in the service of our country, in the form of a monument that will stand where they can’t.

I am a student of history, and have recently completed a course which approached American history by examining local monuments, documents, and artifacts. It is through these things, that one can understand the people who once lived and breathed in that town, and understand what mattered to them too. This monument could show all who follow that those who answered the call to duty do matter, and will always be worth remembering.

It has been said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But how can Americans really know their history without such monuments that make real the events that can sound so cut and dry in the history books? Vietnam veterans did not receive much of a welcome home forty years ago. Perhaps you can play a role in seeing that they are honored now. There are many people you may not be aware of who remember and care deeply.

Please erect this monument. I, for one, would be incredibly grateful. I would also be honored to be present for the opening ceremony.

I would also like to ask that you seriously consider creating a virtual for the Garden City fallen. This technology allows photographs and commemorations such as poems and even letters from war received by families. In these ways, this medium can better personalize the loss that my family and other Garden City families have suffered.

I am enclosing several poems I wrote over the years in my effort to come to grips with the loss of my wonderful brother. You will notice that the bitterness of “Nineteen” is not found in the later poem. It takes many years to heal, and I have an amazing story about the inspiration for the “Fly Softly Brother” poem.

I thank you for considering my plea.

Sincerely,

Marianne Sheridan

Dear Mayor,

My brother, Richard Nash McInerney, is one of the Garden City fallen that this proposal is concerned with. I would like to explain why this matters deeply to me and all that knew Richard Nash McInerney of Garden City.

Our family has a treasured history of military service to this Nation, one that we are proud of and know Garden City is too. My father, my three brothers, and myself, are West Point graduates. The USMA historian chose our family to profile in his 1999 essay at the Point.

The family came to Garden City after my father retired from military service and took an executive position in New York City. My twin brother John and I, along with Richard, loved GC and all of us graduated from GCHS and were on the 1954 Nassau Champion Football Team.

Richard more so, since he was a year younger. It was at 102 Kildare Rd., a house that I still recall very fondly even after the innumerable homes and bases of 35 years active service in the United States Air Force.

I remember that house as much for Richard lighting it up with his personality and his being. Younger brothers naturally look up to older brothers. In our family, we all respected Richard’s talents, his intelligence and his personality. We were all very proud of him.

The three of us went to West Point to continue our family’s legacy of following in our fathers and older brother Jim’s footsteps. Richard followed us by a year, graduating in 1960, a true leader of his class. His star was bright and his course true. When he died in Binh Dinh Province Vietnam on March 11, 1967, he already was deep into his second tour there. He was a company commander with the storied First Air Cavalry, one of the Army’s very best units, and he was one of their very best.

His infantry company had air assaulted to the aid of another company under heavy enemy attack. Richard’s leadership and personal bravery won the day, and resulted in a Silver Star and his death while leading the counterattack.

The United States Army, this Nation and Garden City lost one of its finest that day. Our family knew that, we hope Garden City does.

We had lost my twin brother a few years earlier to Hodgkin’s Disease, and the burden of those two losses rested heavily on my parents. They chose to be buried at West Point next to my two brothers.

While he rests with them, I think that Richard still would want part of him to be in Garden City. He truly enjoyed the Village, growing up here and his friends from this fine community. It what occurs when one grows up in a place that he loves and is loved.

Likewise, I hope you see it proper to honor those from Iraq/Afghanistan, Korea and WWI. They all served their community with pride and bravery.

Lastly, I know from my own experience of the outstanding ability of a virtual wall to further commemorate the ones who gave their last full measure. This aspect should also be approved, for today it represents the future.

With great respect and admiration,

Thomas G. McInerney

Lt. Gen. USAF (Ret)

Clifton, VA