A Gold Star Mother remembers

Twice each year, since the bronze bust of her slain Vietnam War hero son was placed in front of Riverhead Town Hall in the early 1990s, Mary Langhorn has made sure it was cleaned and polished just before the Memorial Day and Veterans Day holidays.

Until a few years ago, the Gold Star Mother, now 86, and her husband, Garfield M. Langhorn Sr., lovingly polished the bust of their only son themselves. Her husband passed away in 2008, and Mrs. Langhorn has passed the torch of maintaining the statue to their three nephews, Dewey, Jeffrey and  Robert Langhorn. Only Robert, at 49, is old enough to clearly remember their cousin, but the men honor his memory and the sacrifice he made for our country by polishing his bronze likeness on the lawn in front of Town Hall.

Garfield M. Langhorn Jr., a 1967 Riverhead High School graduate was just 20 years old when his life ended in Pleiku Province, Vietnam on Jan. 15, 1969. He died a hero, having thrown himself on a live grenade to save the lives of wounded soldiers he was attempting to rescue from enemy attack.

“We heard the story of how he died in the papers,” Mrs. Langhorn recalled Saturday morning as she watched her nephews clean and polish her son’s bust. “But we didn’t know what to believe,” she said, even though she and her husband knew their son’s giving, caring nature.

Then, the Langhorns got a call from a West Islip man named Rodney Eve, who said he was their son’s friend and one of the men whose life was saved by Langhorn’s selfless sacrifice. He came to Riverhead to visit them, and told them the story of how Garfield was killed. “It was good to hear it from an eyewitness,” she said.

PFC Garfiled M. Langhorn received the Medal of Honor in 1970. This week, companion legislation to Rep. Tim Bishop’s bill that would name the Riverhead post office for Langhorn passed the Senate. His bill unanimously passed the House in February. It is now on its way to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.

“It’s an honor. He was a good guy and a great son,” his mother said, watching her nephews polish the bronze bust.

Her son’s friend Rodney Eve died in 2007. His son, Rodney Jr. in a speech at a memorial service at the Roanoke Avenue Elementary School, told the students and their families of the impact of one man’s sacrifice, which he learned first-hand: “If it weren’t for Garfield Langhorn, I wouldn’t be here today.”