February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
But McGreevey had a more serious mission to perform at the Irishfest, held as usual at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J.
With American soldiers giving their lives in military service in Iraq and elsewhere around the world in the war against terrorism, festival organizers wanted to remind festival goers of a terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 241 U.S. Marines: the Beirut barracks bombing of Oct. 23, 1983.
Accordingly, McGreevey presented five New Jersey families who lost someone in that attack with the N.J. Distinguished Service Medal, noting that though the attack horrified the U.S. and the world at the time, it was quickly forgotten.
It was a retired Marine from New Jersey, Vietnam veteran Bernie Snyder, who noted that the Beirut attack was quickly forgotten by most, after coincidentally hearing from two women, mothers of two soldiers who were killed in Beirut and how they felt their sons’ ultimate sacrifice goes by almost unnoticed each year.
“The stories I heard from some of these families would break your heart,” Snyder said. “There was no recognition for those soldiers? sacrifices, nor was there any response from state senators at the time.”
When Snyder approached the New Jersey Irish Festival Committee they decided to incorporate the five New Jersey families of the Beirut U.S. Marine Corp victims into what is already an established festival tradition, honoring the military dead at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the Arts Center. This event is in its sixth year and has grown in size every year.
“A man by the name of Jack Ganer started the tradition six years ago,” Snyder said. “We would take a pipe and drum band up to the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial at the Arts Center, and we would attract a crowd of 30 people. Today, hundreds make the trip to honor those veterans. It’s a great tradition.”
Festival general chairman James Collender praised Snyder for bringing to people’s attention those whose sons had fallen in battle and who have been forgotten.
And McGreevey saluted the five families as he presented the medals: Louis and Mary Ellen Estler, parents of L/Cpl. Sean Forrest Estler; Lureth Undercuffler, mother of L/Cpl. George L. Dramis; James Langon, father of Cpl. James Joseph Langon IV; Judith Young, mother of Cpl. Jeffrey D. Young, and Rev. David Stowe, father of Cpl. Thomas D. Stowe.
The N.J. Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award for service in the state and was originally issued in 1858 for those who distinguished themselves in the New Jersey Militia, but was used infrequently until reauthorized by Gov. Thomas Kean in 1988.