By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Veterans tend to have selective memories when asked about their military service.
Either they will be vague and elusive, or they’ll be willing to tell you every detail.
So it was Thursday night (Aug. 6) at Hillsborough’s ceremony honoring the Military Order of the Purple Heart recipients on the eve of the 233rd anniversary of the forerunner badge.
The Purple Heart, the most recognized medal of the armed forces, is awarded to those injured or killed while serving in combat. It was originally introduced by George Washington in 1782 and is the award given to U.S. military members.
Ted Dima, a Hillsborough resident and president of the Somerset County Chapter 27 of the order, was asked before the ceremony how he got the medal he wore on his shirt pocket.
“Being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he quipped.
Later, to the audience of about 40, he said members were proud of the medal “although we actually didn’t try to earn it,” said Mr. Dima. “Most of the time it came because we zigged when we should have zagged.”
Other members of the chapter attending the ceremony in the Garden of Honor at the municipal complex willingly provided date, circumstance and emotion surrounding the injury that qualified them for the medal.
Jimmy Lindsay of Bridgewater and Edwin Mendoza of Piscataway stood together once again in a continuation of common circumstances stretching back more than 45 years.
The two Marines were in boot camp together in Parris Island, S.C., were sent to Vietnam on the same train out of Newark and both had been wounded twice, a distinction indicated by two medal markings on a ribbon on the shirt chest.
In Vietnam, Mr. Lindsay drove amphibious vehicles and Mr. Mendoza was randomly chosen to be a combat engineer. That was a euphemism for being a demolitions expert — him, they guy who hated fireworks.
The two New Jersey boys shared stories about their first days together. Mr. Mendoza said he graduated from high school on a Friday, got married on a Saturday and left for boot camp on Monday.
Mr. Mendoza said he enlisted because he realized he was a likely draft target. Street wisdom had advised him that he could pick his assignment if he signed up first, he said. Being originally from Puerto Rico, when the recruiter asked him where he wanted to go, he talked about Caribbean.
“Oh, you want some place exotic?” the recruiter replied, having in mind a tropical place on the other side of the world.
He had memories of his return to the U.S., too, in the midst of turmoil over how the country felt about the war. He said he thought he might be greeted with a parade or something when he returned; instead he was hit in the face with an orange as he went from airplane to terminal.
“What’s going on?” he said he remembered incredulously.
Government officials had their turns expressing their thoughts.
Mayor Doug Tomson told the anecdote of taking his family to the beach and seeing a young man in a Jeep pull into a handicapped-parking space. He wondered what was going on until he saw that three-quarters of the man’s right arm was missing.
It provoked a moment of awe, Mr. Tomson said, as he paused and thought about the sacrifice.
That guy will remember each and every time he looks at his arm, the mayor said he remembered thinking.
“His image will be with me for a very long time,” he said.
Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli said a community reveals itself by how it treats its children, senior citizens, honors war dead and celebrates its veterans. In these respects, Hillsborough is second to none, he said.
Veterans who received a Purple Heart “have a special place in our heart,” he said.
Congressman Leonard Lance said this country strives toward ideals and none of that would be possible with the military service of veterans serving and those “who shed your own blood.”
Margaret Galka, widow of Frank Galka, of Oldwick, attended with a sorrowful look on her face. Her husband, who was wounded in November 1944 in Italy, died just two weeks ago.
The Army veteran was wounded in action in Italy in November 1944. He was the recipient of the European-African-Middle Eastern Theatre Ribbon with two Bronze Stars, and a Purple Heart.
“We take care of our members and their families,” said Mr. Dima. The chapter helped Mrs. Galka with funeral arrangements and other items, and made her an associate member of the chapter.
Somerset County Chapter 27 has about 70 members on its mailing list, mostly from Bridgewater, Piscataway, Monroe, Middlesex and Hillsborough, said Mr. Dima. There were a fair number of World War II veterans on the list, he said.
Others among the 10 chapter members who attended offered bits of their personal stories.
Jay Bubb of Monroe recalled being hit in an ambush as a first lieutenant with the 1st Calvary Division in September 1970. His shoulder was torn up, “and that was my war,” he said.
John Tamburini of Hillsborough said he was in Vietnam for 18 days in July 1970 with the 101st Airborne Division when he was wounded in a mortar attack during the Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord. The 23-day fight between the airborne division and the North Vietnamese Army is noted in Wikipedia as “the last major confrontation between United States ground forces and North Vietnam of the Vietnam War.”
To his left, Mr. Tamburini saw his buddy go down just before he himself was hit twice, the second time in the face and arm.
Joe Piazza, 66, of Hillsborough was in the Army was 1968 to 74 and in Vietnam in 1968-69. The infantryman “earned” his Purple Heart when he was hit by a RPG in a fire fight.
Kenneth Meaney of Watchung was also hit twice. He was operating a machine gun when he was gun was hit and his thumb and ribs were broken, he said. He was medevacked out — chuckling while recalling how he had to hold on to prevent to someone’s leg to keep from sliding out of the helicopter as it banked into the landing area.
