Somewhere about 1960, a platoon of boys dragged themselves over dirt mounds, mucked through dark watery mud holes and crawled through long stretches of sticky pine tree needles. We conquered strange lands that would eventually become West Sayville housing developments on roadways named Munson, Andrea, Bartley, Rivera and Anson.
The boys were a collection primarily from Colony Drive, Brook St., Washington St. and a few others. This West Sayville platoon changed composition from day to day depending on each boy’s families summer plans. Occasionally a local girl would join us, usually serving as our medic. The girls were less interested, but we gladly welcomed them.
We did our very best to create an atmosphere of heroism, camaraderie and sacrifice based on WWI and WWII movies we had seen. One day we built a “Bridge over the River Kwai”.
Another day involved an escape from “Stalag 17”. We had no real concept of the true horrors of war. To us, it was adventure a day fueled by imagination, television and movies, minus the pain, suffering and sacrifices our true military heroes endured.
Housing and roadway construction in 1960 made the area particularly exciting. By 1962, we were using our imaginations to reenact episodes from the hit television program “Combat!, imagining bulldozers and vehicles as enemy tanks.
Armed with plastic helmets, canteens often filled with homemade lemonade or perhaps Kool Aid and plastic binoculars, we took turns serving as Sgt. Saunders, Lt. Hanley. Our weapons were sticks found in the debris which bore some remote shape resemblance to those depicted in “Combat!”. Pine cones served as grenades.
Combat awards comprised of soda bottle caps; peel out the cork, place the bottle cap on the front of your t-shirt then press the cork back into the cap with the a layer of the t-shirt in between. Sometimes we could create a row of battle medals, which were usually lost in future reconnaissance missions. Sometimes, they were hastily plucked off and trashed by rather displeased Mom’s dealing with clothes so darn filthy, that “they could stand up by themselves”.
During rest periods, we smoked candy cigarettes and talked about the future battles. We wondered who would really join the military as an adult and who among us might some day be a military General.
None of the platoon became a military General. We became police officers, aviation experts, medical examiner, entrepreneur publisher, marina owners, railroad administrator and teachers. Some actually went into the military. No one from Sayville or West Sayville would ever really go on to become a military General, right?
A half century later, I have learned the truth. It is possible! In 1979, Richard K. Sele graduated from Sayville High School. Moving forward through a most remarkable and honorable career, Richard K. Sele was promoted to US Army Brigadier General. That is just the tip of the iceberg. You can now read his biography and be inspired by General Sele’s contributions back to Sayville through his new column hosted here at the Sayville Alumni Association; “Star Notes”.
We are so excited about this fantastic development. Come read General Sele’s first article titled “A Story of Unwavering Commitment” at;
https://sayvillealumni.org/a-story-of-unwavering-commitment/
A brief biography can be read at;
https://sayvillealumni.org/biography-brigadier-general-ret…/