Posted on 10/31/2005 4:22:31 PM PST by SandRat
LAKE PLACID (Oct. 31, 2005) -- On any given day, the staggering heights and breath taking view of the Verizon Sports Complex’s Mt. Van Hovenburg is an attraction for many who visit Lake Placid. However, for a salty Marine veteran, the beauty of the mountain and the rest of Lake Placid is just another day at the office.
A son of an Army WWII veteran, former Marine Sgt. Mike Gonyea lived amidst the frigid winters and picturesque summers of Lake Placid all his life. As young teenager, like most children of Lake Placid, Gonyea took to winter sports. Hockey was the main sport where he had shone the brightest. In his late high school years, his skills as a player developed so much that he had an opportunity to avoid the snare of the Vietnam War by going professional and joining a league. However, coming from a line of military men, Gonyea felt the blood of a warrior course through his veins and knew he had a greater calling.
“If I would’ve gone to college, I was a good enough hockey player, and we had so many pro teams in Lake Placid that I could’ve probably stayed out of Vietnam. But, with my dad’s and uncles’ background, joining the service wasn’t my duty… it was just my obligation as being a United States citizen. Hell, look at what they went through with the Japanese, and I was no different,” said Gonyea in confidence as he recalled his early years.
During that time, Gonyea also drew inspiration from his friends who had gone to war and came back injured from combat. He remembered one older friend in particular who lost his legs to a landmine. The wounded veteran warned Gonyea and his other high school buddies not to sign up for the hellish war, but Gonyea heard a different message from his words of caution, having been motivated by his friend’s sheer determination in the face of combat and its subsequent obstacles.
“He kept telling us ‘don’t go, don’t go…look at what happened to me’, but that’s what actually made me go…seeing that. He was a survivor and real heavy duty. He got up everyday to live life, but he eventually drank himself to death. People never knew it, but Vietnam was part of that. Vietnam was his life. Once he went there and came home he didn’t have anything left,” said Gonyea with a combination of sorrow and fondness in the tone of his voice. “We had a lot of lads that came up in the 60’s that if they graduated high school and were not going to college, then they were going to Vietnam either in the Army or the Corps. That’s just the way it was.”
Gonyea, then a young 18-years-old, made his choice and stepped onto the yellow footprints of Paris Island. His next stride off the footprints landed his feet in the forewarned jungles of Vietnam in the middle of the brutish war.
“From 1969 to 1972, they went with a mobile CAC (Combined Action Company), where every 12 hours you had a different area of operation. Every12 hours you would pick up everything you had and put it on your back, from your Grenadier M-60 to your PRC-25. We had seven Marines and a Navy corpsman. Most of the time, we were with your popular forces, which were your farmers. We were very under manned, and they didn’t want to do anything, because they were mostly from the villages. They were Viet Cong sympathizers. So, if we were out on two man killing teams, and they were with us, they would light up a cigarette of make some noise to blow our cover,” said Gonyea with a focused gaze into nothing as he drugged up his memories of the war.
Gonyea went on to explain that although the VC sympathizers caused several battles that often resulted in injury for CAC 239 and local villagers, the CAC still got most of its intelligence information from them. It was this sort of conflicted situation that led to the then 21-years-old Gonyea being ambushed one ill-fated night. “We were going out for a killer team. Back then in CACs, it was just two Marines. I carried the PRC-25 and the guy that was with me, Rick Shuttleton, he…,” said Gonyea struggling as he wrestled with the remembrance of his life threatening moment. “We were going to set up an ambush that night, and we actually got set up ourselves. We were both medical evacuated that night.”
Gonyea was sent from hospital to hospital nearly clear across the world. He eventually found himself in New York, where he worked diligently to rehabilitate from his injuries.
“After I got medically evacuated out, I was actually in St. Albans Naval Hospital in Jamaica, Queens for almost six months, and then I was stationed at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. When I got there, I had casts on both legs, and as I was checking in, the gunnery sergeant took one look at me and said, ‘what the hell I’m I going to do with you?’ I said, ‘I have no idea gunny.’ I was shot in both tibias, had gotten shrapnel in both arms and my chest, and I had gotten my teeth blown out. But I stayed in the Corps, I didn’t get out,” said Gonyea with a chuckle.
Gonyea was awarded The Purple Heart for his actions on the night of his attack. During his remaining time in the Corps, having been a mere lance corporal, Gonyea was meritoriously promoted to corporal and later sergeant.
In 1972, having left Lake Placid a boy, Gonyea returned to Lake Placid a man with experiences under his belt that could never be rivaled by those of his peers who had chosen to go to college. Looking for work in his rural hometown, he stumbled upon an opportunity tending to the bobsled track that runs down Mt. Van Hovenburg.
Today, he is the track manager and assists in bobsled, luge, and other trainings. He also assists in the Winter Olympics prequalification and was even a part of the staff during the magical 1980 Winter Olympics. Besides working at the track, Gonyea is also a volunteer fire fighter and is very active in his community. In his spare time, he finds solace in collecting historic military paraphernalia and has amassed an extensive collection throughout the years.
PURPLE HEART STORY
Awardee? Obviously did not have my drill sgt
Bump!
Excellent read
BTTT!!!!!!!!
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