Service members lost in Vietnam remembered at replica wall in Copiague

Donald and Catherine Puccio came to the Vietnam Memorial Wall replica in Copiague on Thursday where they etched the name of Catherine's brother, Salvatore Armato.

The three of them grew up in West Babylon. Armato and Donald Puccio, both 20, were best friends and in the same Army unit shipped to Vietnam in 1970.

Eight weeks after entering the war zone, Armato was dead — killed on patrol when a fellow soldier opened a case that contained a bomb.

More than 50 years later, the Puccios, of Holtsville, found some peace tracing his name on a warm, sunny afternoon.

"Never a day goes by that I don't think of him, what he went through, what we all went through," said Catherine Puccio, 72, as she choked up with tears. "The fact we're honoring veterans is a beautiful thing because they didn't get to come home."

Armato's name is joined by nearly 60,000 others on the wall — representing every American service member to lose their life during the Vietnam War. It is a three-quarter scale replica of the hallowed Washington, D.C. memorial. The wall is hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and includes the names of those who gave their lives or remain missing.

The waterfront exhibit at Tanner Park, known as "The Wall That Heals," opened Thursday and will remain so, 24 hours a day, through 2 p.m. Sunday. Each night, a trumpeter will play taps at sunset. The park is the latest stop on the exhibit's cross-country tour.

Babylon and Suffolk County officials and more than 100 others, among them military veterans, gathered Thursday afternoon at the park to mark the occasion.

The 375-foot long wall is made up of 140 composite granite panels and at points stands more than 7 feet high. The wall includes the fallen service member's name and the year they died during the war.

At the ceremony, each Vietnam veteran in attendance was given a lapel pin as a symbol of appreciation and to recognize the approaching 50th anniversary of the war's end in 1975.

Veterans also laid a wreath at the wall in honor of Hicksville Vietnam vet Joe Ingino, who died in December and was an advocate for victims of the battlefield chemical Agent Orange.

George Gardiner, 77, of Middle Island, an Army vet who survived the war, came to the wall Thursday to etch the names of four friends who didn't.

He marked down the name of his 20-year-old wingman. The friends were seated in separate helicopters on Nov. 10, 1966, and flying above a jungle canopy when the wingman's aircraft went down in flames after being hit by enemy fire. The wingman was killed.

“Just like anyone who wants to remember friends and family, this helps keep their spirit alive and lets me show gratitude I made it and sorrow that they didn’t,” Gardiner said. “When I look at all these names, I think about how they were not fortunate enough to have what I have. I have a family and I made it home, but 58,000 of my brothers didn’t make it.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.