Riverhead street dedicated to fallen Vietnam war hero

Riverhead Town today dedicated Maple Avenue in downtown Riverhead to PFC Garfield Langhorn, the Riverhead Medal of Honor recipient killed in the line of duty in Vietnam  in 1969, when he jumped on a live grenade to save the lives of fellow soldiers.

Councilman John Dunleavy, who proposed the dedication of Maple Avenue, where Langhorn grew up, presided over the ceremony this morning, attended by an American Legion color guard, a contingent of men from the Vietnam Veterans of America organization, Langhorn’s mother and members of his family, the Rev. Charles Coverdale, pastor First Baptist Church in Riverhead, friends and town officials, including Supervisor Sean Walter, Councilwoman Jodi Giglio and Highway Superintendent Gio Woodson.

“We gather today to honor all the veterans but most important to honor the veterans that died for our country,” Dunleavy told the group assembled on the corner of Maple and East Main Street for the 10 a.m. ceremony.

Dunleavy said naming the street in Langhorn’s memory would serve as a permanent reminder to all of the sacrifice made by the soldier and his family for Riverhead and for our country.

Gold Star Mother Mary Langhorn said she appreciated having the street named in her son’s memory and wished her late husband, Garfield Sr., were here to witness it.

“I want to thank Rev. Coverdale and all the different organizations for coming out today,” she said. “And I want to thank my family for their support.”

This is not the first community acknowledgement of Langhorn’s heroism, though many years elapsed between his death in January 1969 and the formal tributes to his valor. A bronze bust of the soldier stands on the front lawn at Riverhead Town Hall, erected some 20 years after he was killed in action. In September 2010, the new U.S. post office on West Main Street was named the PFC Garfield M. Langhorn Jr. Post Office. In September, the library at Pulaski Street School, which was Riverhead High School when Langhorn attended school here, was named the Garfield M. Langhorn Jr. Memorial Library.

Langhorn, a 1967 graduate of Riverhead High School, 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,” his mother recalled in a RiverheadLOCAL interview last year, 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. Eve 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.

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.”

Photo captions:

Top, left to right: Mary Langhorn, Rev. Charles Coverdale, Councilman John Dunleavy underneath the street sign commemorating Maple Avenue as PFC Garfield Langhorn Avenue.

Middle: Portrait of Langhorn, painted by artist Gerald Slater, for the Riverhead post office, which was named ofr Langhorn lat year.

Bottom: Riverhead paratooper Jason Gevinski unveils the new street sign Friday morning.

RiverheadLocal photos by Peter Blasl