HILLSBOROUGH: Veterans share lessons at HHS

By Eileen Oldfield Staff Writer
   HILLSBOROUGH — He spent two years in college during the late 1960s, Hillsborough resident Ted Dima told high school students Nov. 12, and changed his major three times.
   At that point, he told the students, he knew he’d be drafted, and enlisted in the military, figuring he’d be sent to a non-combat post.
   ”When they handed me green underwear and an M-16, I knew I wasn’t going to Germany,” Mr. Dima said. “. . . The men in my team became my family. We had to get from point A to point B and if we encountered the enemy, we had to engage them. When things got hard, we turned to each other.”
   Mr. Dima, who served during the Vietnam War, was one of four local veterans who shared their stories with the students for Comcast and the History Channel’s “Take a Veteran to School Day.” Scheduled a day after Veteran’s Day because of a conflict with obtaining the school’s auditorium, residents Mildred Murphy, a nurse stationed in Staten Island during World War Two; Assemblyman Peter Biondi, who served in the Army in the 1960s; Jim Maguire, who served with the Marines after the Vietnam War, spanned almost 30 years of war and peacetime service.
   District Social Studies Supervisor Toby Kansagor said Comcast approached the school regarding the program, which they readily accepted.
   The veterans focused on their experiences serving their country, despite the sometimes frightening and horrific encounters.
   Mr. Dima said after 10 months of his year-long tour had passed, he was wounded during the Battle of Kham Duck.
   ”I was lucky I got wounded that day, because I got medi-vaced out,” Mr. Dima said. “Most of the men that went there — 450 of them — did not make it out.”
   Despite the horrors faced as a soldier in Vietnam, and the hostility toward returning soldiers, Mr. Dima said the experience allowed him to complete college.
   ”If it weren’t for my military experience, I wouldn’t be able to finish college,” Mr. Dima said. “I enlisted at 18, and came out at 21, but my mind was 31. I aged, and returned 10 years older in one year in Vietnam.”
   Though Mr. Biondi served between the Korean and Vietnam Wars, he said serving helped him learn discipline and respect.
   ”I think a lot of times, you go from high school to college without a lot of direction,” Mr. Biondi said. “The military can give you direction.”
   For Mr. Maguire, a retired Hillsborough Police officer and the township’s deputy emergency management coordinator, the Marines shocked him out of his Newark upbringing.
   ”The Marine Corps was my salvation,” Mr. Maguire said. “I was headed for trouble, and the Marine Corps put me on track.”
   Each veteran stressed the responsibility earned through their experiences and their pride for their country, with the soldiers’ young ages being common theme.
   For Ms. Murphy, the ships bringing the wounded to Staten Island offered a constant reminder about the soldiers’ ages.
   ”When we got on the ships, it was difficult to hear the moaning and the screams of the 18, 19 year-olds,” Ms. Murphy said. “Their arms and legs were missing; some of them were shot in the head, their faces blown away.”
   ”Most of the fellows in the military were 18, 19,” she added.