Memorials

[Barry Calhoun]

This is a new discussion topic to post news of 15th Med Comrades or related who have passed. :-(

[Barry Calhoun]

Thanks for Eric Kuhn for passing this along about Don Cicuzza....


Well, I was looking around the internet for people who were at the 15th when I was and sadly found this:

4/1/2005
Donald Guy Cicuzza Jr., 50, of Powers Avenue,
Johnsonburg, died suddenly Thursday at his residence.

He was born November 7, 1954, in Johnsonburg, son of
Ruth Jordan Marrone, of Johnsonburg, and the late
Donald G. Cicuzza Sr.

In addition to his mother, he is survived by three
sisters, Elizabeth Fitch of Johnsonburg, Carol Irvine
of Warren, Angela Sloan of Marion, SC; two
step-sisters, Joyce DeVallane of Johnsonburg and
Shirley Luby of Tonawanda, NY; three nephews, Donald
Fitch, Robert Irvine and William Fitch; and one niece
Carrie Fitch.

Besides his father, he was predeceased by his
grandparents.

Mr. Cicuzza was a graduate of Johnsonburg High School
and then went directly to the Army. He was a career
Army veteran and recently worked as a driver for ATA
and at NAPA Auto Parts in Johnsonburg. He was Catholic
by faith.

He joined the Army during the Vietnam Era and was
trained as a tank operator and served as a helicopter
pilot for more than 16 years. He served as a warrant
officer in the Desert Storm Conflict for the
liberation of Kuwait. He served a total of 21 years in
the Army. He enjoyed reconstructing cars and was fond
of his pet birds.

Funeral services for Donald Guy Cicuzza Jr. will be
held Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Ubel Funeral Home,
Johnsonburg, with Father David Wilson, officiating.
Burial will be in Holy Rosary Cemetery, Johnsonburg.

Visitation will be tonight from 7-9 p.m. and Saturday
from 10:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at Ubel Funeral Home.
Military honors will be accorded by the
Johnsonburg/Wilcox Servicemen's Detail. Service
members are asked to assemble at the funeral home at
12:30 p.m., Saturday.

Copyright 2005 St Marys Daily Press

Eugene Breindel

Im sorry to bring you this news.

Eric Kuhn

[Bill Sorenson]

I'm sorry to hear about Don. We had a good time together at Graf. He was a great guy and a good pilot. Sorry to hear about this news.

Sincerely, Bill Sorenson

[Brendon Despres]

Sorry to hear about Don, he taught me alot about flying the UH-1. Who would of though, I guess we just don't realize how short life really is until something like this hits you. I wished we would have had time to see each other again before this.

Brendon (Tiny)

[Barry Calhoun]

I replaced Don at Graf in May of '84, so only have a couple memories of him: One while we overlapped and the second a couple of years later when I encountered him at Ft. Campbell.

I had just arrived at Graf a day or two earlier, and the unit was having a Hail & Farewell. I can't remember the town where it was, but Don said that he would take me. So he picked me up in his El Camino or whatever it was, and off we headed into the German countryside. I remember that ride being so surreal. It was dark, and we were on these very small 1.5 lane roads, with the El Camino making it really a one-lane road. The traffic signs and the buildings were all so different. It was my first experience out in Germany and it was very strange. The H & F was a lot of fun, and my first taste of the comaraderie that Graf was about.

That was about my only encounter with Don until I was back at Ft. Rucker going through the Blackhawk transition with......oh, I can't remember his name, now--he was the SIP at Landstuhl, I think. He and I were stick buddies for the Blackhawk course. During the course, with about a week to go, a Blackhawk in the class just before us "blew blades" and basically free-fell from 500', killing everyone aboard. The Army immediately grounded the entire fleet until they could determine the cause. We had finished all our ground training and had nothing to do, so the Army said, "Just hang out until we either start up again or tell you to go home." So, after a few days of this, my stick buddy, who knew Don and knew he was stationed at Ft. Campbell, suggested we take a road trip up to visit him. There was nothing else to do, and I thought seeing Ft. Campbell might be beneficial, so off we went.

Don met us and took us on a tour of Ft. Campbell. (This turned out to be a very important event for me, because it was instrumental in my decision to leave the Army.) It was immediately obvious that Don was not a happy camper. He related to us how he was on perpetual remedial PT because he couldn't pass his company's 2-mile run requirement. I don't remember the exact details, but it was basically the same old thing of the Army having the standard for his age of something like 18 minutes to complete the run, but the base commander, wanting to show how much better the Airborne was, made the base requirement 17 minutes. The brigade commander wanted to prove his guys were better than the other brigades, and so made the brigade requirement 16 minutes. The battalion commander wanted to prove the same thing, and so on down the line until poor Don (who, as you might remember, wasn't exactly the athlete) was required to do the 2-mile run in something like 14 minutes, which he couldn't do. So, he was required to run 5 miles with the slow guys every Saturday and Sunday in addition to the daily runs during the week. He was having all kinds of foot and leg issues.

They also made him learn to jump (which he hated). He told us how much life at Ft. Campbell sucked, and after he showed us around the base, I believed him. I remember vividly him driving us around the enlisted quarters area when the car in front of us stopped in the middle of the street. Another car coming the other way stopped next to it so the drivers could talk. We had to stop and wait. Both cars had soldiers in uniform driving them. Then, right in front of us in broad daylight, on base, they made a drug deal. We could see the dime bag being swapped with cash between the cars. I was astonished. This wasn't the '70's; this was 1986 when routine urinalyses were happening. We looked at Don, and he said that drugs were a big problem there, and that a lot of guys were hoping to get popped so they could get out early, they hated it so much. This was a different Army than I had encountered. I mean, I know Jeff Gower used to smoke a joint now and then out in the ALSE shack, but this was something else! (Just kidding, Jeff!) ;-)

We drove a bit further and heard a bunch of sirens and saw a bunch of fire trucks heading somewhere in a hurry. I said that I wondered what that was all about. Don said, "They've probably set the barracks on fire again." I laughed, then realized he wasn't kidding. He said that it had happened a number of times already.

We stopped at the exchange for a burger and he continued to tell us how much Army life sucked at Ft. Campbell and how much he hated it. As we talked, passersby (all soldiers in uniform) would stop and join the conversation, all of them bitching about how much they hated the place. It was incredible.

I realized that places like Ft. Campbell, Bragg, etc., were the "real" Army, and that my tour of duty at Grafewoehr was a very fortunate anomaly. I realized that I could never survive the nonsensical things that Don was describing for very long. This was all in my mind two years later when I requested an extension at Graf and the Assignments Officer said, "No, you've done your Medevac thing. Next you're going to a line unit at either Ft. Campbell or Bragg, and then you'll go to Korea, and then back to probably Ft. Hood."

I don't think so. Let's see.....Ft. Campbell or Air Force Flight School.....hmmmmmm. :-)

That was the last time I saw Don. I hope the rest of his career was happier than that tour. Graf must have been a hard act to follow.

[John Ryan]

Manny Martinez was an MSC Lt. that arrived at Grafenwoer in about 1974.  When I left the 15th Med in 1975 and was assigned to the 101st at Ft Campbell (Holy Crow, let me OUT of this Army!) I turned around and went back to Europe on Reforger '76 as advance party.  During a lull I managed to get up to Graf and saw Manny and his wife Michelle and their new baby.

 

Years later, I was on a layover in Austin and decided to try and get together with Manny.  I called his unit at Ft Sam Houston and was informed that Manny had died in an auto accident.  There were other details, but the long and short of it was that Manny had died by himself in a single car accident when he ran into a set of bleachers on an athletic field.