Highway of Valor ride remembers Vietnam

Saturday, July 11 was a beautiful summer day in Groton, albeit a bit rainy here and there, so many found themselves riding in the rain. Over 100 motorcycles traveled more than 100 police-escorted miles from Owego to Hannibal along State Route 38 as they participated in the 12th annual Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway of Valor Tribute Ride.

Route 38 was given the distinct designation of “Highway of Valor” in 2009 by the government of New York state.
The purpose of the ride is to draw attention to the highway that was named to honor both our fallen and surviving Vietnam veterans and to raise community awareness for those who served our country during that conflict and all they endured in doing so.

The Groton American Legion Post 800 was the first stop for gas and food, where I had the pleasure of meeting Groton resident and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Gary Pataki, and his wife of 55 years, Sharon Pataki.

Gary served in the infantry as a lance corporal in the USMC in the 2nd battalion 4th Marine Division and served in Vietnam for 10 months in 1969 when he was 19 years old.

With tears in his eyes, Gary spoke of how Sharon “waited for him” to return from his tour of duty, which clearly meant so much to him in such uncertain times. Fortunately, Gary’s unit was one of the first groups to leave the battlefield to return home, but not before those 10 months made a lasting impact on him.

Stationed in the DMZ (demilitarized zone), Gary explained that the job of our military was to try to prevent North Vietnam from invading South Vietnam.

“Most people call it a war, and it really wasn’t,” Gary said. “It just felt like it was. We basically lived in the bush/jungle, mainly in the trenches we dug for ourselves.”

Gary carried a 60-millimeter mortar and M-60 machine gun the entire time he was there and explained the responsibility of knowing exactly how to use them.

“If a man carrying an M-60 goes down, you’ve got to know what to do to pick up his weapon and use it if you need to,” he said.

Gary also said there were roughly 100 soldiers in his unit and that about 20 of them were killed within the first few months they were there.

“I still remember them making two copies of my dog tags to put in each of my shoes before we went over there,” Gary said. “And when I asked ‘why?,’ they said it was because some of the men who were killed might only be identified by a foot.”

Gary showed me a tiny piece of metal on his key chain that looked like some sort of razor blade, so when he asked whether I knew what it was, “razor blade” was my answer. He explained that it was called a “P38” and that it was a treasure every soldier there guarded and kept close so he would never lose it.

“Our chow, our food, came in metal cans called C-rations and were dropped to us periodically from helicopters,” he said. “We needed our P-38’s to open them with.”

An even more important item that came in the packages dropped from the “chow helicopters” was and still is a package of toilet paper.

“You have to remember, we were living in the middle of nowhere with nowhere else to go for months on end,” Gary said. “Having that toilet paper was amazing.”

Gary mentioned several other things he experienced while in Vietnam, including only sleeping two hours per night because they were all expected to stand guard over one another’s trenches in two-hour shifts.

“To this day, I only sleep two hours a night because I think in my mind that I need to be ‘guarding holes’ the rest of the time,” Gary said.

All this only scratches the surface on what Gary and all who served with him went through, but he said how proud it makes him to see his Groton community making this annual ride.

“This is great recognition for all Vietnam vets everywhere and shows that people really do care,” Gary said.

Gary sadly mentioned how proud he was to wear his military uniform but that they were told by their superiors not to wear them around because of all the unrest and how “down on military” much of the general public was at that time.

“I still remember getting on the plane to finally come home and seeing everyone on the flight looking at me as though I were a criminal,” Gary said. “The stewardess at one point leaned down and whispered, ‘welcome home’ to me, too afraid to have others see her being nice to me.”

Gary and Sharon had been living in Ithaca but moved to Groton in 1969 to escape the turmoil over the military that was going on.

Before we parted, Gary, again with tears in his eyes, said this to me: “You’re lucky you got me to open up and talk about this. I haven’t wanted to talk to anyone about any of it for the past 50 years, but it was time.”

Another annual tradition of the Valor ride is to pay tribute at the Graves Memorial site on Main Street to U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient 2LT Terrence Graves, who lived in Groton and died serving his country in Vietnam in February 1968.

“Groton on the Inside” will have an “inside story” on how the Graves Memorial came to be next week.

Groton on the Inside appears weekly. Submit news ideas to Linda Competillo, lmc10@cornell.edu or 607-227-4922.

In brief:

Clothing Closet is open

The Clothing Closet, 160 Main St., is now regularly open from 10 a.m. to noon every second and fourth Saturday of the month and during those same hours on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month.

It is gratefully receiving donations of gently used, stain- and odor-free clothing, particularly for school-aged girls, during regular hours.

Groton Rotary golf tournament

Groton Rotary has found creative ways to raise the financial support needed for the equally creative things it has accomplished through the years. This year, its members have been hard at work planning to host their annual golf tournament, and it is not too late to get the word out so folks may participate.

The “Captain and Crew” tournament will be held, rain or shine, with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Friday, July 17 at Stonehedges Golf Course, 549 Stevens Rd. This will provide a fun and entertaining environment for great golf, food and prizes. Get a hole-in-one and win a trip or $10,000. Proceeds will benefit The Old East Hill Cemetery.

The fee is $75 per person. Contact Brian Forney at forneybw@yahoo.com or (573)512-0241

Congrats Millbrook Farms

Millbrook Farms is excited to announce it has achieved 30 years of Super Milk status.

This is a big deal as the program started in 1990. There are over 4,000 dairy farms in New York state, and fewer than 27 farms received this award (fewer than .6% of farms in the state).

The Space family worked incredibly hard on the farm to produce high quality forages, provide the best cow care possible and be a lake-friendly, environmentally sustainable farm.

They say thank you to everyone in the community that has supported us along the way.