It’s not every day that high schoolers get to encounter living history. On May 15, students from sophomore history classes visited the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Museum in Holmdel. Guided tours were hosted by four Vietnam War servicemen who shared stories of their experiences alongside exhibits and artifacts from the era.
“It was bittersweet,” said Joaquin Sanchez ‘26. “It was heartwarming, speaking to the veterans, but you could see in their eyes the things they saw and the friends that they lost. It was an honor to hear from them.”
A focal point of the trip was the memorial itself: an outdoor, circular monument, made of black granite and inscribed with the names of “the 1,564 men and one woman from New Jersey who did not make it home,” according to the museum’s website. Students were able to find the names of many of the former EHS students who lost their lives during the war.
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The EHS Vietnam Faces Memorial, on the wall in the Media Center. Created by the Civics and Justice Academy and dedicated in 2015, it displays the names, faces, and service history of 8 Edison students who were killed or went missing during the Vietnam War.
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History students listen to Vietnam veteran Mr. John McGuinness, one of the four tour guides at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Museum. McGuinness, a US Army recon scout, shared his recollections of the war throughout the day through his own photographs and stories.
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Tour guide and veteran Mr. John McGuinness, aided by Rich Bruder ’26 (with umbrella), tells the story of US Army Captain Eleanor Grace Alexander. Alexander, a nurse from Middlesex County, was killed in November 1967 when her plane crashed, killing everyone aboard. She is the only woman on the New Jersey Memorial’s wall.
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A view from inside the courtyard of New Jersey Vietnam Memorial. The memorial itself, visible in the background made of black granite, contains the names of the 1,564 men and one woman who were killed in the war. The statue in the foreground represents the bond between those were served and were wounded in Vietnam.
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The flagpole at Edison High’s main entrance. At its foot, in granite, is a monument dedicated to EHS graduates who never returned from the Vietnam War.
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These eight men include six graduates: Ronald Mayercik ‘62, Victor Mika ‘62, William Shortt ‘64, Joseph Tamagnini ‘64, Michael Pavlocak ‘65, and Joseph Colasurdo ‘67. The remaining two, Lazslo Boross and Edward Meeker, attended EHS but left before graduation.
Recent research has uncovered a potential ninth soldier, Donald Moses ‘63. Moses graduated from Edison High with the Class of 1963, but his military records indicate his hometown as Rahway. More information will be collected over the next year and updated, as necessary.