Veterans Day in My Hometown

My hometown -- New Milford, NJ --  held its annual Veterans Day observance on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year this morning:

- Mayor Mike Putrino read a proclamation and joined local veterans in placing memorial wreaths on the monument in front of Borough Hall.

- The New Milford High School Ensemble sang the national anthem, "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America," and a young bugler played taps.

- The Police Department stopped traffic in a moment of silence and, just down the road at the historic French cemetery, a work crew from Master Locaters ("Because What's Underneath Matters") briefly suspended their efforts.

The day also included a nod to the Bermuda Triangle and the use of a ground-penetrating radar device.

First, about the Bermuda Triangle:

The borough's memorial monument lists the names of more than two dozen residents who died in service to our country in conflicts since the Civil War. These same names also appear on street signs throughout the borough. The story of each man's life is shared in a slide show, which can be viewed at the borough's website: "The Stories Behind the Stars."

Recently, my friends at the New Milford Historic Preservation Commission found one more story to tell. It's about Navy Lt. Cmdr. Paul Thomas Smyth. Here, with permission from the Commission, is the story of his disappearance after piloting a plane over the Bermuda Triangle in February 1978:

Born in Brooklyn, Smyth grew up in New Milford and enlisted in the Navy following graduation from college. He served in Vietnam, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for a successful attack on a missile site in North Vietnam. He was also the recipient of the Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat “V,” and the Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon. He had been selected for promotion to lieutenant commander.

On Feb. 22, 1978, Smyth, 31, and his navigator, Lt. Richard W. Leonard, were flying a KA6 attack bomber from the Naval Air Station at Oceana, Va., to the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, stationed about 100 miles offshore. The weather that day was overcast, with strong winds and high seas. According to his mother, Marjorie, his last words were, “Wait a minute. We have a problem.” The plane then lost radar and radio contact. A search of the area failed to find any trace of the plane or its occupants.

Smyth's plane went missing near the infamous “Bermuda Triangle,” a 1.5 million-square-mile area extending from Bermuda to Puerto Rico to Norfolk, Va.; however, neither the Navy nor the family attributed the disappearance to a curse.

Now, about the ground-penetrating radar:

The Historic Commission recently authorized specialists at Master Locators to scan the French burial grounds next to Borough Hall.

The town knows of at least 175 people buried there, but there aren't anywhere near that many gravestones or markers at the site. The scanning device being used today will help develop a map of actual burial locations.

Maybe someday we will even find an answer to the local mystery of what happened to the body of Bertha Reetz.

Until then, here's a link to the original Facebook post about Lt. Cmdr. Paul Smyth from the New Milford Historic Preservation Commission:

Related story: "The Mystery of Bertha Reetz"