At Saturday's alumni banquet, Edmeston Central School's class of 1963 will honor a fallen Marine, Medal of Honor winner Terrence Collinson Graves.
A second lieutenant, Graves died Feb. 16, 1968, after his eight-man patrol was ambushed in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. According to the citation on his Medal of Honor, he was on a reconnaissance mission when his unit, the Third Force Reconnaissance Co., came under heavy fire.
Graves radioed for help and directed air support during a fierce firefight, and eventually all but one of his men were able to board a helicopter.
``Realizing that one of the wounded had not embarked, he directed the aircraft to depart,'' the citation reads. Then Graves and another Marine went back for him.
``Confronted with a shortage of ammunition, Second Lieutenant Graves utilized supporting arms and directed fire until a second helicopter arrived. At this point, the volume of enemy fire intensified, hitting the helicopter and causing it to crash shortly after liftoff. All aboard were killed.''
Graves was 22.
Four years earlier, he'd graduated from ECS, where his father, Leslie Graves, was school superintendent.
``Popular, good-looking, a good athlete and a natural leader,'' is how classmate Barbara Finley of Norwich described him. ``He had a lot of friends and young kids looked up to him, remembered some nice thing he'd done for them.''
After high school, Graves went to Miami of Ohio University on an ROTC scholarship, playing varsity baseball, but when he graduated four years later, the undeclared war in Asia was still raging and Graves shipped out to South Vietnam.
Months later, his death was a shock to those in Edmeston, according to classmate Ron Tasior, who later taught business at the school and coached its baseball team.
``It hit me hard; we were pretty good friends,'' he said.
In the 1960s, Graves' parents moved to Groton, and years ago, the town erected a statue to the winner of the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart and several other medals.
But he still had friends where he'd gone to school.
``Someone asked me why there was a statue of Terry in Groton when he had considered Edmeston his home, and that got me thinking,'' Finely said. ``The school gives out the Terry Graves Sportsman Trophy every year, and after so many years, I though we should let local people know who he was.''
On Saturday, the class of 1963 will present the school with replicas of several of Graves' medals and a plaque commemorating his service.
Finely said that another classmate, retired Lt. Col. Rebecca Enck of Oneonta, had been instrumental in organizing the recognition.
