This Memorial Day is a good time for those on this site to reflect on the sacrifices of that their Dad, Mom, uncle’s and aunts from the WW2 era, and the sacrifices made by their brothers , sisters and friends from the Vietnam and later “conflicts”.
Finally thank you to those reading this post that served in the US military.
Below is a short news article about the Vietnam losses of one small upstate NY City. Unfortunately these losses were not unique to Glens Falls.
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The mood in Glens Falls on Good Friday 1967 was particularly somber.
Word had just reached the city the evening before that Marine Cpl. James J. Bates, age 19, and Army Cpl. John Pezzulo, age 21, had been killed in Vietnam.
Both were graduates of St. Mary's Academy in Glens Falls.
Bates had been killed the previous Sunday when he was shot in the chest while leading a squad on patrol south of Da Nang.
Earlier in the war, he had achieved distinction twice - in June 1966, when he was selected "outstanding recruit" of Platoon 246 at Parris Island boot camp, and in October when he was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in combat.
Pezzulo, who served with an artillery unit in the Central Highlands near Tayninh, had been killed the previous Tuesday.
He was scheduled to return to the states and be discharged in September.
Their stories have been told and retold many times in Glens Falls and, more than four decades later, are still fresh on the minds of longtime city residents.
Bates and Pezzulo were the first Vietnam War casualties from the city, and the seventh and eighth from the greater Glens Falls area.
By the end of the war, 55 residents of Warren, Washington and Essex counties were killed in the fighting.
Ages of the 55 at the time of their deaths ranged from 18 to 37.
Their names are carved in stone on the Vietnam Memorial wall on the campus of Adirondack Community College in Queensbury.
The 55 men would have been enough to field a league of six baseball teams, with an extra player to pinch hit wherever needed. Many of the 55, like Bates and Pezzulo, were standout athletes at area high schools.
Army Pfc. James W. Collier of Fort Edward was a member of the Vagabond Drum Corps.
The 20-year-old was killed in April 1967 when a truck he was riding in struck a land mine and blew up.
Army Specialist 4 Joseph Colotti, 19, of Glens Falls - also killed in Vietnam in April 1967 - was the first member of Boy Scout Troop 5 of Big Cross School to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.
The Vietnam era was a pivotal time in a city that also was beginning to see dramatic change on the homefront, as downtown buildings were demolished and replaced under the Glens Falls Urban Renewal program.
The region's casualty count reached 15 when Army Specialist 4 Gene Colvin of Fort Edward died July 1, 1967, as a result of wounds he suffered in combat a few days earlier when he stepped on a booby trap.
He died "within days" of the expected due date of his second child. He and his wife already had a 10-month-old son.
The New York Times, after Colvin's death, reported that the region had a disproportionate share of war deaths.
The Greater Glens Falls area, with a population of about 72,000, had about one-half of 1 percent of the state's population, yet had suffered more than 2 percent of the state's 700 war deaths, Ralph Blumenthal reported in the Times article.
Blumenthal attributed the high death rate to strong local recruitment statistics.
One out of every 36 area residents was in the military, compared with the national average of one in 57, he reported.
Of more than 2,000 area residents serving in the military in July 1967, only about 150 had been drafted.
The death count reached 19 when Army 1st Lt. William J. McCarty of Fort Edward, a former Post-Star carrier, was killed in action on Oct. 12, 1967.
The 25-year-old had an uncle who was killed in World War II.
Army Sgt. William L. Aiken, killed 40 miles from Hue on Nov. 13, 1970, had been president of the Whitehall High School Student Council.
Marine Corps Cpt. Norman A. Mead, 20, of Middle Granville, killed July 19, 1967, was a volunteer firefighter with the Penrhyn Engine Company.
Army Spec. 4 William Eric Strobel, 24, killed July 9, 1967, near An Khe, was a state forest ranger in Warrensburg before entering the military.
Marine Corps Pfc. Joseph LaRose, 19, of Hadlock Pond Road in West Fort Ann, wrote his mother a few days before his May 12, 1967, death on Hill 881. He wrote he was engaged in his last operation before coming home.
LaRose was one of nearly 1,000 Marines killed during a 12-day battle for three strategic hills south of the demilitarized zone.
War deaths would affect families in many neighborhoods, and, in one case, two families on the same street.
The parents of 23-year-old Robert O. Barry lived next door to the parents of 34-year-old Albert B. Ayres on Hughes Court in Queensbury.
Barry, a Marine Corps lance corporal, was killed May 16, 1967, while serving in the demilitarized zone near Quang Tri province.
Ayres, a Marine Corps major, was killed Feb. 24, 1967 in the vicinity of Phu Bai, Vietnam when the helicopter he was piloting on an emergency medical mission was shot down. He was married with four children.
Army Specialist 4 Howard E. Beagle was already a decorated war hero when he was killed April 10, 1967.
On Jan. 28, 1967, Beagle administered life-saving first aid to a small girl with head wounds lying between friendly and enemy troop positions. After the exchange of fire ended, he treated a wounded Viet Cong guerilla who was captured.
Perhaps the incidents weighed on Beagle's mind when he wrote to his family on March 20, asking them not to cry or mourn for him if he should be killed because he would be with them regardless, whether in body or soul.
The stories of the 55, if told one by one and in detail, would fill volumes.
Some have been memorialized other places besides the Vietnam Memorial wall at ACC.
The Sgt. Frederick H. Flynn Memorial Park in Warrensburg was named in honor of a 20-year-old Army soldier killed in Vietnam on Oct. 1, 1968
Finally thank you to those reading this post that served in the US military.
Below is a short news article about the Vietnam losses of one small upstate NY City. Unfortunately these losses were not unique to Glens Falls.
——————-
The mood in Glens Falls on Good Friday 1967 was particularly somber.
Word had just reached the city the evening before that Marine Cpl. James J. Bates, age 19, and Army Cpl. John Pezzulo, age 21, had been killed in Vietnam.
Both were graduates of St. Mary's Academy in Glens Falls.
Bates had been killed the previous Sunday when he was shot in the chest while leading a squad on patrol south of Da Nang.
Earlier in the war, he had achieved distinction twice - in June 1966, when he was selected "outstanding recruit" of Platoon 246 at Parris Island boot camp, and in October when he was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in combat.
Pezzulo, who served with an artillery unit in the Central Highlands near Tayninh, had been killed the previous Tuesday.
He was scheduled to return to the states and be discharged in September.
Their stories have been told and retold many times in Glens Falls and, more than four decades later, are still fresh on the minds of longtime city residents.
Bates and Pezzulo were the first Vietnam War casualties from the city, and the seventh and eighth from the greater Glens Falls area.
By the end of the war, 55 residents of Warren, Washington and Essex counties were killed in the fighting.
Ages of the 55 at the time of their deaths ranged from 18 to 37.
Their names are carved in stone on the Vietnam Memorial wall on the campus of Adirondack Community College in Queensbury.
The 55 men would have been enough to field a league of six baseball teams, with an extra player to pinch hit wherever needed. Many of the 55, like Bates and Pezzulo, were standout athletes at area high schools.
Army Pfc. James W. Collier of Fort Edward was a member of the Vagabond Drum Corps.
The 20-year-old was killed in April 1967 when a truck he was riding in struck a land mine and blew up.
Army Specialist 4 Joseph Colotti, 19, of Glens Falls - also killed in Vietnam in April 1967 - was the first member of Boy Scout Troop 5 of Big Cross School to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.
The Vietnam era was a pivotal time in a city that also was beginning to see dramatic change on the homefront, as downtown buildings were demolished and replaced under the Glens Falls Urban Renewal program.
The region's casualty count reached 15 when Army Specialist 4 Gene Colvin of Fort Edward died July 1, 1967, as a result of wounds he suffered in combat a few days earlier when he stepped on a booby trap.
He died "within days" of the expected due date of his second child. He and his wife already had a 10-month-old son.
The New York Times, after Colvin's death, reported that the region had a disproportionate share of war deaths.
The Greater Glens Falls area, with a population of about 72,000, had about one-half of 1 percent of the state's population, yet had suffered more than 2 percent of the state's 700 war deaths, Ralph Blumenthal reported in the Times article.
Blumenthal attributed the high death rate to strong local recruitment statistics.
One out of every 36 area residents was in the military, compared with the national average of one in 57, he reported.
Of more than 2,000 area residents serving in the military in July 1967, only about 150 had been drafted.
The death count reached 19 when Army 1st Lt. William J. McCarty of Fort Edward, a former Post-Star carrier, was killed in action on Oct. 12, 1967.
The 25-year-old had an uncle who was killed in World War II.
Army Sgt. William L. Aiken, killed 40 miles from Hue on Nov. 13, 1970, had been president of the Whitehall High School Student Council.
Marine Corps Cpt. Norman A. Mead, 20, of Middle Granville, killed July 19, 1967, was a volunteer firefighter with the Penrhyn Engine Company.
Army Spec. 4 William Eric Strobel, 24, killed July 9, 1967, near An Khe, was a state forest ranger in Warrensburg before entering the military.
Marine Corps Pfc. Joseph LaRose, 19, of Hadlock Pond Road in West Fort Ann, wrote his mother a few days before his May 12, 1967, death on Hill 881. He wrote he was engaged in his last operation before coming home.
LaRose was one of nearly 1,000 Marines killed during a 12-day battle for three strategic hills south of the demilitarized zone.
War deaths would affect families in many neighborhoods, and, in one case, two families on the same street.
The parents of 23-year-old Robert O. Barry lived next door to the parents of 34-year-old Albert B. Ayres on Hughes Court in Queensbury.
Barry, a Marine Corps lance corporal, was killed May 16, 1967, while serving in the demilitarized zone near Quang Tri province.
Ayres, a Marine Corps major, was killed Feb. 24, 1967 in the vicinity of Phu Bai, Vietnam when the helicopter he was piloting on an emergency medical mission was shot down. He was married with four children.
Army Specialist 4 Howard E. Beagle was already a decorated war hero when he was killed April 10, 1967.
On Jan. 28, 1967, Beagle administered life-saving first aid to a small girl with head wounds lying between friendly and enemy troop positions. After the exchange of fire ended, he treated a wounded Viet Cong guerilla who was captured.
Perhaps the incidents weighed on Beagle's mind when he wrote to his family on March 20, asking them not to cry or mourn for him if he should be killed because he would be with them regardless, whether in body or soul.
The stories of the 55, if told one by one and in detail, would fill volumes.
Some have been memorialized other places besides the Vietnam Memorial wall at ACC.
The Sgt. Frederick H. Flynn Memorial Park in Warrensburg was named in honor of a 20-year-old Army soldier killed in Vietnam on Oct. 1, 1968
