BSA - Union County Lifetime Achievement Award

It was great honor for me to receive the Union County lifetime achievement award from the Boy Scouts of America.

Congrats to all my fellow honorees:

Nancy DiLiegro

Sister Percylee Hart

Bette Jane Kowalski

Bernie Wagenblast

All extremely deserving of this honor!

Also, I can’t thank boxing great Gerry Cooney enough for introducing me.

Gerry is a world class gentleman.

One of the funniest and most humble men I ever met; although Naomi did try to beat him up when she found out he was a boxer! Seriously...

I accepted this special award in honor of Joseph Thomas Tangarie.

My Uncle Joe!

My Uncle was a Union County resident from Hillside.

He became a Boy Scout in the late 50’s.

In 1958, at the age of 13, he also became not only a local hometown hero, but a national hero as well.

One day he came upon 2 brothers who were being bullied and who were both thrown into the Raritan river.

The boys didn’t know how to swim

and were drowning, when my Uncle jumped in and pulled them both to safety.

He received the Police Benevolent Associations Gold Medal of Heroism Award, and his heroic story was even depicted in a cartoon in Boy's Life, a Boy Scouts of America book that was published in 1959.

Fast forward 9 years later.

In February of 1968, my Uncle had just married my Aunt Sue.

About a week later, I drove with Joe and my family to Newark Airport.

Joe was leaving NJ to fight in the war in Vietnam.

He was a Private First Class in the United States Army, and was trained as a Paratrooper & light weapons infantry specialist, attached to the 1st Cavalry Division.

“First team” as they are nicknamed, were some of the bravest souls on the planet. The type of men who would go into enemy territory, without asking any questions.

1st Cavalry Division was one of the most decorated combat divisions in the US Army.

It was the 1st Cavalry Division that was featured in the movie “Apocalypse Now” in one of the most infamous & chaotic battle scenes ever depicted in movie history.

It must have been a nerve wracking and emotional day for my Uncle as he left behind his new wife, his family and his beautiful 4 year old daughter Christine from a first marriage, to fight in a war on the other side of the world from his.

I was a naive 5 year old, and was very excited that day.

As he always did when I saw him in uniform, he let me put his hat on at the airport terminal, and we saluted each other.

I never forget how proud that made me feel that a real life soldier would respect me like that.

I watched as he walked up the ramp to board a Pan Am flight.

Even for 5 year old, it was a surreal moment for me as I thought about how this commercial jet that normally takes people to fun places, was taking him around the world to fight in a war.

What little I knew about war, I knew it wasn’t good.

Little did I know, my Uncle was heading straight to hell on earth.

He was one of the elite soldiers that was being sent to fight in the

Battle of Khe Sanh, one of the most bitterly fought military battles in United States history.

There are no words for the chaos our 6,000 soldiers experienced against 20,000 advancing North Vietnamese, the best equipped and largest forces they had, who were trying to overtake that strategic military base.

Just 6 weeks after I last saw him at the airport, my mom sat me down for breakfast one morning in Elizabeth.

2 scoops into my cereal, she shared with me the tragic news

that my Uncle Joe was killed in action by friendly fire.

He was one of the 1,000 marines that perished at Khe Sanh.

My mom said he would receive a Purple Heart for his bravery,

but that I would never see him again.

It wasn’t until 25 Years later that I was able to salute my Uncle Joe again.

This time, at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.

I want to thank Victor Sorillo, the Union County chapter of the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors, and Jennifer Voltz and all the organizers of last nights event.

I also want to thank all our veterans.

Many of whom are Boy Scouts alumni.

Your bravery is not taken for granted by countless Americans,

myself included.

If it wasn’t for our veterans, I doubt any of us would have the freedoms we have.

To my Uncle Joe...

You deserve this Union County Lifetime Achievement Award a whole lot more than I do!

And I hope I have an opportunity to salute you in heaven again, sir!

In the meantime, I’m happy that I can give this award to your wife, my Aunt, for her contribution to democracy.

Her having to endure such a monumental loss for the past 53 years, is a profound contribution indeed.