A Finger Lakes Vietnam veterans chapter preparing to dissolve in two years has given Cornell University’s ROTC brigade a bronze plaque recognizing decades of support and a connection its members hope will outlast their organization.
Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 377 unveiled the gift Nov. 9 at Cornell’s Veterans Celebration in Alice Statler Auditorium. James Dean reported in the Nov. 11 Cornell Chronicle that the Dryden-based chapter is also handing leadership of its annual POW/MIA Watchfire to Team Red, White & Blue as aging members face increasing difficulty organizing events.
A lasting thank-you for decades of service
The plaque honors Cornell ROTC’s Tri-Service Brigade for more than 30 years of support for the watchfire, including a weekend cleanup effort. It will hang in Barton Hall’s main stairwell leading to the track and ROTC offices on the Statler Drive side.
Chapter President Gary Napieracz, 78, a former custodian in Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said the gift reflects the veterans’ appreciation for the university and its future military officers.
“It’s because of our ages, and we can’t get the manpower to do a lot of these events anymore,” Napieracz told the Chronicle. He credited ROTC with supporting the chapter for 35 years.
Napieracz said he is among the youngest of the chapter’s roughly 90 members, who come from Tompkins, Cortland, Cayuga, Seneca and Tioga counties.
The chapter has donated granite benches around the region, but members decided a plaque would fit Barton Hall best. Its message recognizes brigade members as future leaders honoring veterans of the past and promises that one generation of veterans will not abandon another.
A connection built around the watchfire
Several hundred veterans and community members, including Cornell cadets and midshipmen, gathered Sept. 18 at Myers Park in Lansing for the watchfire honoring prisoners of war and service members missing in action. Participants placed planks on the bonfire in remembrance and spent time talking across generations.
Air Force ROTC cadet Marco Martini, an ILR School senior from Wallkill, helped coordinate the plaque project. Veterans presented it to him and the brigade at a reception following the Nov. 9 celebration.
The relationships extend beyond a single ceremony. Chapter members follow students’ military careers, share advice and connect with them through the watchfire and an annual patriotism award.
Michael Moran, a Vietnam veteran from Slaterville Springs who continues to work at Cornell athletic events, told the Chronicle those conversations help prepare students to become officers and lead the people who will depend on them.
Preserving experiences as membership ages
For Moran and Napieracz, today’s expressions of support differ sharply from their experiences returning from Vietnam. Moran returned in 1975 and joined the Cornell University Police Department and Army Reserves. Napieracz, an Army veteran from Locke, returned in 1971.
Both described feeling unwelcome after the war. Napieracz said those experiences helped shape the chapter’s commitment to welcoming and supporting later generations of military personnel.
Cornell military historian David Silbey told the Chronicle that the loss of firsthand experience makes historical events more vulnerable to being forgotten or distorted. He described Vietnam as moving from something people experienced into something students encounter in textbooks.
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Martini, who is preparing to commission as an intelligence officer, said students value hearing veterans’ stories and learning how they coped with experiences far removed from today’s campus life.
Celebration also recognizes continued service
The Nov. 9 gathering opened Cornell’s Veterans Week programming, which FingerLakes1 previously previewed. Retired Army Col. Isaiah “Ike” Wilson III, a visiting lecturer in Cornell’s Brooks School of Public Policy, spoke about the responsibility to pursue lasting peace beyond the end of a war.
Cornell’s Veterans Colleague Network Group presented Continuation of Service Awards to MBA student Matthew Morris, who helped organize the Baby Brigade family resources fair in March, and Randi Rainbow, a former group chair and retired technology director.
The Cornell University Chorale performed the Armed Forces Salute, and Navy ROTC midshipmen Sebastian Major and Soomin Jung performed “Echo Taps.”
For Martini, the plaque connects that recognition to the responsibilities ahead. “It represents the everlasting bond between past service members – those who have already answered our nation’s call – and those of us who are preparing to do the same,” he said, according to the Chronicle.
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