Mike Howell

But Long Island has a rich history of the Vietnam War.

We made the A-6 Intruder, all these great planes.

You were telling me the story of Ray McDaniel, served six years in the Hanoi Hill.

Captain Ray McDaniel, he's retired now.

He's about 89.

But they flew up here from Naval Air Station Oceania.

to either Grumman or out to Calverton to pick up the A-6 intruders.

And those were brought back, put on the Enterprise, and off to Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin.

And he flew 82 missions.

Wow.

And he got shot down on his last mission.

The SAM missile came up.

He bailed out his navigator.

Reb is captured two days later.

He landed in a tree and had broken bones.

Some bones in his back, but his navigator, James Kelly Patterson, never surfaced in the prison system.

But Red survived six years of that.

So Long Island, you know, helped win World War II.

You know, the F6F Hellcat, the TBF Avenger, the A-10 Warthog, you know, Vietnam, the F-105 Thunderjacks, all made on Long Island.

So there's a rich history here.