COMING SOON... 12.31.20
General Richard Montgomery - KIA Revolutionary War
John A Cray - KIA Civil War
James Cray - KIA Civil War
Arthur S Dixon - KIA WWI
Michael Malko - KIA WWII
Charles Rospopa - KIA WWII
George L Brown - KIA WWII
SP4 Stephen H Warner - KIA Vietnam War
LT. Ashley Henderson-Huff - KIA Operation Iraqi Freedom
MONTGOMERY VETERANS PARK
REMEMBERING ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED.
General Richard Montgomery, Montgomery Township’s namesake, rose through the ranks of the British Army, but took up the Patriot cause when the American Revolutionary War began in 1775. He became a Major General in the Continental Army and is largely known as America's First National Hero after falling in the Battle of Quebec on New Year’s Eve 1775. He is America's First General Officer to be killed in battle and America's First General Officer to be killed on foreign soil.
Private John A. Cray served in the 4th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment for the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment organized at Camp Olden in Trenton in the summer of 1861 under General Butler who attached to Runyon's New Jersey Brigade in defense of Washington, DC. The regiment moved south to control the occupation of Arlington Heights, construct Fort Runyon, and fought at the first Battle of Bull Run
Private James Cray also served in the 4th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which organized at Camp Olden in Trenton in the summer of 1861. Private Cray enlisted in September 1861 and left New Jersey for Maryland with his regiment. The regiment advanced South throughout the
duration of the war, fighting in battles including Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House , Cold Harbor, and finally Appomattox Court House
Arthur S. Dixon enlisted in the US Army in 1917 to fight in the Great War. Dixon’s regiment was one of the first waves of US troops to leave for Europe to fight “Over There.” The first US infantry troops landed in France on June 26, 1917 to begin training for combat. Dixon was killed in action soon after enlisting, making him one of over 100,000 American service people to die in the First World War.
Private First Class Michael Malko served with US Army 27th Infantry Division 165th Infantry Regiment. On June 15, 1944, Private First Class Malko’s regiment and 8,000 U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining control of a crucial air base. Facing fierce enemy resistance, Americans poured from their landing crafts to establish a beachhead, battle Japanese soldiers inland and force the Japanese army to retreat north. With the U.S. victory apparent, Japanese soldiers launched a massive but futile banzai charge. Private First Class Malko was killed in action on July 1, 1944. On July 9, the U.S. flag was raised in victory over Saipan. Michael Malko was one of six brothers who all served in World War II.
Marine Private First Class Charles Rospop enlisted and served with the First Battalion, 24th Marines from 1942 until his death. The 24th Marines embarked for Iwo Jima in late January 1945 with other 4th Marine Division units. From the very beginning of the operation the 24th Marines remained locked in battle in one of the most infamously brutal battles of World War II. Pfc Rospop succumbed to wounds on March 5, 1945 before the last enemy pocket of resistance was finally crushed on March 16th. The regiment was relieved two days later and immediately boarded naval vessels and returned to Hawaii. The regiment suffered 652 killed and 1053 wounded. Private Rospop’s headstone lies at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Tech Corporal George L. Brown served with the 271st Engineer Combat Battalion 71st Infantry Division in the US Army. The 71st Infantry Division arrived at Le Havre, France in February 1945, several months after the D-Day invasion. The division moved east and saw its first action on March 11th. The ousting of the Germans from France began a few days later. The division would go on to advance through Germany as the Axis Power began to crumble, liberating Gunskirchen Lager, a subcamp of Mathausen Concentration Camp. Tech Corporal Brown died from non-battle wounds on March 26, 1945. He is buried in Lorraine Cemetery in St. Avold, France.
Stephen H. Warner was an anti-war activist who was drafted in 1969 after finishing his first year at Yale Law School. After induction into the Army, Stephen Warner remained bitterly opposed to the Vietnam War. However, when sent to Vietnam as a public information specialist, he repeatedly volunteered to go out into the field to write human interest stories about the combat soldiers. In February 1971 the vehicle on which Specialist Warner was riding in Quang Tri Province was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing Steven and three other American soldiers. The book, Killed In Action, contains 22 photographs taken by Steven Warner during his travels around Vietnam, as well as a selection of his human interest articles.
Specialist, Army
Stephen H. Warner
Skillman
KIA February 14, 1971
Stephen H. Warner was an anti-war activist who was drafted in 1969 after finishing his first year at Yale Law School. After induction into the Army, Warner remained bitterly opposed to the Vietnam War. However, when sent to Vietnam as a public information specialist, he repeatedly volunteered to go out into the field to write human interest stories about the combat soldiers.
In February 1971, the vehicle on which Warner was riding in Quang Tri Province was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing Steven and three other American soldiers.
The book, Killed In Action, contains 22 photographs taken by Steven Warner during his travels around Vietnam, as well as a selection of his human interest articles. (See pages 20 and 21.)
An exhibit of his photographs and journals title, As You Were, will be held at the Vietnam Museum in Holmdel beginning in January. ■
November 11, 2019
Skillman resident and anti-Vietnam War activist Stephen H. Warner was drafted and — in a strange twist of fate — served in the U.S. Army as a field photographer and reporter in southern Vietnam before being killed in action just before be was scheduled to return home in 1971.
Warner’s fascinating and personal story, told through his photographs and in his own words, will be on exhibit at the NJ Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial and Museum in Holmdel beginning January 1.
Museum Curator Greg Waters gave a preview of the exhibit to a large group of Rotarians from the Route One Princeton Area chapter at a luncheon in the Hyatt Regency in September.
“My job as a curator is to create museum exhibits so people can better understand the 1,563 New Jerseyians who’s names are on our wall,” he told the group, which include several Montgomery residents.
“In a unique way, this exhibit will be Stephen Warner telling his own story,” Waters said, noting that whenever possible, he used Stephen’s letters and journals so that he could “speak for himself.”
Stephen H. Warner was born on February 21, 1946 in Skillman.
His mother was a stay-at-home mom who raised him and his younger sister Victoria, who later worked at the Princeton Public Library. His father was a WWII veteran, who, after the war, worked for Johnson & Johnson as a patent attorney and also was a municipal judge.
“Stephen was a quiet kid who loved to read and did well in school,” Waters said. Stephen attended public schools, which then included high school in Princeton, from which he graduated in 1964.
Stephen majored in history at Gettysburg College, where he became heavily involved in the anti-war movement from 1964 to 1968. He was a vocal leader of the protest movement while on campus at “a time when the popularity of the Vietnam War continued to diminish as the body count continued to rise,” Waters said.
Montgomery High School graduate Class of 2000, Ashley Henderson Huff was commissioned at the University of Georgia through the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. She joined the U.S. Army in May 2004, and was deployed to Iraq in December 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She performed the duties of a platoon leader with the 549th Military Police Company, 385th Military Police Battalion. Ashley was killed when a roadside side bomb detonated while she was on patrol on September 19, 2006. She was the first New Jersey woman to be killed in the war and the only Montgomery High School graduate to have been killed in action while serving in the military. The United States military awarded First Lieutenant Huff the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism
Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon. She was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Combat Action Badge. The road leading in to Montgomery High School was recently re-named Lieutenant Ashley Henderson Huff Memorial Drive, in honor of Ashley’s service to her country.
Lt. Ashley Henderson Huff, a member of the 2000 graduating class from Montgomery High School, was tragically killed in Iraq on September 19, 2006 while serving her country as a member of the 549th Military Police Company.
This is truly a tremendous moment for the Military Police Corps … she was a tremendous officer, she moved people, said Col. Mark Spindler, commander, 18th Military Police Brigade. What a profound thing that has happened here, when the Iraqi’s dedicate a monument to a U.S. Soldier on Iraqi soil...
BAGHDAD – A bronze bust of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ashley Henderson-Huff, was dedicated during a ceremony opening the Erbil Police Academy Oct. 15 in Erbil, Iraq.
Henderson-Huff was a military police officer assigned to a U.S. Army Military Police Transition Team in 2005. She died of injuries suffered in Mosul, Iraq, Sept. 19, 2006, when a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near her mounted patrol during combat operations.
Henderson-Huff’s father was present and participated in the dedication as the monument was uncovered.
"A Day to Remember" -
The Montgomery Township School District honored MHS Class of 2000 1st Lt. Ashley Henderson Huff by dedicating a street sign to her on what would've been her 35th birthday.
Mark Henderson, Ashley's Father was present.
Navy Lieutenant Michael McGreevy was part of a dedicated Naval Special Warfare team, Seal Team Ten, fighting the Taliban in Operation Enduring Freedom. Lieutenant McGreevy worked to help ensure al Qaeda terrorists could not train in, nor launch strikes from Afghanistan since their attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. He was one of 16 troops killed when a MH- 47 Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on a night mission on June 28, 2005. McGreevy, seven other SEALs. and eight Army Nightstalker” commandos, died in a heroic attempt to rescue their fellow SEALs. It was the biggest single loss of life for Naval Special Warfare forces since World War II. Lieutenant McGreevey was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for Valor, Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, and Afghanistan Campaign Medal, posthumously. Lt. McGreevy’s daughter, Molly was 15 months old at the time of his death.
Navy Lt. Michael M. McGreevy, Jr., 30, of Portville, New York. Lt McGreevy died while conducting combat operations when the MH-47 helicopter that he was aboard crashed in the vicinity of Asadabad, Afghanistan in Kumar Province. He was assigned to SEAL Team Ten, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
McGreevy was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who hailed from the small town of Portville, N.Y., population 4,000, where he was remembered as an outstanding student, athlete and "top-notch kid." Kevin Curran, principal of the town's high school where McGreevy graduated third in his class 12 years ago, said, "He made a huge impact on us, that we remember him this well." "He was a great athlete, great student, nice personality, and was so polite," added Linda Scott, a Portville guidance counselor.
McGreevy, 30, who was married and the father of a 1-year-old child, was stationed in Virginia Beach, Va. Navy Lt Michael M. McGreevy, Jr. was killed in action on 06/28/05.
The 1-year-old child - Michael's daughter, is a student at MHS...
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