Monthly Archives: March 2017

March 30: United Veterans Beacon House president Frank Amalfitano and myself, the Beacon House Board chairman, will be honored for our work with veterans before the Long Island Ducks’ baseball game in Central Islip on the night of Saturday, July 15. Under the program launched by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency, two veterans will be honored per home game and be given 10 complimentary tickets for family and friends. We were informed of…..

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March 26: I was invited to participate today in a program moderated by Vietnam veteran and author Philip Keith at the Quogue Library. About 20 people attended to share their stories, discuss books and artwork and commemorate the March 29, 1973 date when the last American troops left Vietnam. Keith, who is from Southampton, read from his books “Blackhorse Riders” and “Fire Base Illingworth,” I discussed “Heroes to the End” and my work as Board chair United Veterans Beacon House,…..

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March 26: My wife Lynn and I got a reality check today when we visited Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Great South Bay in Sayville (it relocated a few years ago from Bellport), en route to my book talk about “Heroes to the End” at the Quogue Library. Lynn and I are helping LIAC, the Long Island Area Council of UU congregations, to inform each other of their social justice activities via a Roundtable that was created after the Nov……

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March 15: After one particularly harrowing day in the field, I returned to our Stars and Stripes office in Saigon and, over cocktails, was telling the other reporters and my editor Frank Castro about having been under a rocket attack in Kontum in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. “Smitty,” Castro said, “I can just see you ten years from now, guzzling beer and telling war stories at the VFW.” We all got a laugh out of that, but after…..

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March 13: My TV interview on my Army service, my book and United Veterans Beacon House is now available online at //www.wliw.org/legacies-of-war/

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March 11: Lynn and I got back last night from Mexico, where we had a great experience visiting an orphanage outside Acapulco that is run by 84-year-old Jovita Godinez with little or no government help. I’d like to tell you about this amazing woman, who in January celebrated the 26th anniversary of her opening of Hogar Infantil Marsh (Marsh Children’s Home), about 5 miles south of Acapulco Airport. When she was 12 and attending a night church event, Jovita said…..

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