NOV '09 - The Nyack Villager

6 The Nyack Villager November, 2009
Reporter at large
Reporter at Large starts on page 3
Cell Phone Numbers Go Public
is month, all cell phone numbers are being
released to telemarketing companies and you
will start to receive sales calls.
You will be charged for these calls.
To prevent this, call the following number
from your cell phone: (888) 382-1222.
It is the National do not call list. It will only
take a minute of your time and it blocks your
number for five (5) years. You must call from
the cell phone number you want to block. It
will not work if you call from a different
phone number. —anks to Will Kiesel
Agent Orange Revisited
Some good news for Vietnam vets, many of
whom have struggled for decades with the effects
of exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant
used by the US in combat in Southeast Asia.
Since the late 1970s and ‘80s, US soldiers affected
by contact with the toxin have been
asking for help with serious sickness. Fot the
most part, these claims were denied. More recently,
some claims began getting accepted.
Agent Orange is the name given to a blend of
dioxin herbicides used in the Vietnam War
from ‘62 to ‘71. Using aircraft, the US military
sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange
and other herbicides to remove the leaves
from trees that provided cover for enemy troops.
Last month, the new VA Secretary Shinseki
agreed with the vets and established lines of
help for Vietnam vets with B-cell leukemias,
Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease.
His decision was based on independent studies
by the Institute of Medicine showing these
diseases are associated with exposure to Agent
Orange. Vietnam veterans with these and
other diseases may now be eligible for disability
compensation and health care benefits they
always deserved.
Incredibly, because of the power of the giant
multi-national chemical companies, the same
deadly herbicides (2,4-D) and (2,4,5-T) still
turn up in products approved for use on crops
here and abroad. ✫
Vote Tues, November 3
People often overlook local
elections, but they affect our
daily lives more directly than
the highly-publicized national
elections. Local election issues are
close to home, like property tax, roads, schools,
police, sidewalks, and our environment. Your
one vote is important. In a Rockland election
two years ago, there was a six-vote difference.
In Wisconsin recently, balloting ended in a
dead tie. Elections in Rockland tend to be
close, so instead of complaining—vote. ✫
Remember the days?
by James F. Leiner
Nyack’s Medal of Honor
Sailor
Growing up just after the Civil
War, John Auer learned to swim
in the Hudson River off Nyack.
His father, Joseph Auer owned a
harness shop and livery stable on
lower Main Street, where the
family also lived when there were
few buildings West of Broadway. During the
warm summers John and his older brother,
Joseph Jr., would take a dip in the cool waters
of the Hudson after finishing their chores around
the livery stable. When Nyack was a growing
village with steamboats
docking just down the street,
there were few opportunities
for a young man. When his
older bother took a job in a
shoe factory, John decided he
wanted to see the world beyond
the Hudson, so he enlisted
in the Navy when he
turned sixteen.
After completing his basic
training, John was assigned
as an Ordinary Seaman to
the flagship of the US Navy’s
European Squadron, the
USS Lancaster. While technically
this was peacetime,
the United States military
was becoming concerned
with relations with Spain and this period was
officially called the Mexican/Vera Cruz Interim,
the period leading up to the Spanish-American
War. e Lancaster, along with a
squadron of five smaller ships, was assigned to
the northern European waters and the coast of
Africa to protect American citizens and commerce.
Under the command of Rear Admiral Charles
H. Baldwin, the Lancaster steamed to Kronstadt,
Russia, and on May 27, 1883 he and his
staff attended the coronation of Tsar Alexander
III in Moscow. Returning to their assigned
area, the USS Lancaster stopped for supplies
and fuel at Marseilles, France in November of
1883. On November 20, with the wind and
the sea rising. Auer was sent aloft to pass a sea
gasket around a loose main topgallant sail because
gale winds had blown it free.
“It was a pretty strenuous job and in the middle
of it, I stopped to rest a bit,” he wrote for
e Nyack Evening Journal fifty years later,
“Happening to glance down towards the stern
of the ship I noticed a young boy
standing near the edge of the
breakwater. As I watched he was
swept off the stone quay wall and
dropped into the churning water.
I sat and watched for a moment
then, realizing the boy was not
coming up for air, I grabbed my
hat and bunched it up to protect
my hands and jumped onto a
support wire and slid down to the
deck. I yanked off my shoes and hopped up
on the railing and looked down into the water.
ere was nothing in sight. I ran towards the
back of the ship and dove overboard to where
I thought I saw the boy disappear.”
John Auer, just seventeen
years old, jumped overboard
into a rising and dangerous
sea. He successfully rescued
the young French boy, who
could not swim and would
have drowned had it not
been for John’s heroic efforts.
e US Navy originally requested
and awarded the
medal for “seamanlike qualities”
in addition to bravery
above the call of duty. e
Congressional Medal of
Honor was authorized for
Auer on February 2, 1884.
While John Auer continued
to serve in the Navy, his
medal was stolen, but he still
had the citation and the ribbon from the
medal and would often wear it on the lapel of
his coat.
John Auer, Winner,
Congressional Medal of Honor
John realized his dream of seeing the world,
but decided to return to Nyack after five years
of service. When he returned home, his
brother Joseph was working as a mail carrier.
e post office started free home delivery in
1889 and needed postmen, so John signed up
and worked the mounted route in Central
Nyack for more than twenty years. John
Auer, passed away in March of 1951 and was
laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery. His headstone
commemorates the high honor he was
awarded. Of the thousands of men and
women from the Nyack area to serve their
country, John F. Auer is the only recipient of
the Congressional Medal of Honor. A postman
and the son of a harness maker—the
stuff heroes are made of.
The Nyack Villager thanks Jim Leiner for helping us
all ‘Remember the Days.’ ✫