Beach fundraiser honors fallen Marine
Participants of the walk, who decided they would run instead, begin the race on the sands of Lido West Beach Park. (May 14, 2011) Credit: Steve Pfost
In tight formation, 13 Marines ran down the Long Island beach. One held aloft a Marine Corps flag. Others lugged a heavy symbol -- a 90-pound tank sprocket.
The Marines -- from North Carolina's Camp Lejeune, 2nd Tank Battalion -- ran for a fallen comrade none of them knew.
They ran for 1st Lt. Michael LiCalzi, a Garden City native and Chaminade High School graduate, who died in Iraq in 2006 when his tank flipped off a bridge and into a canal.
LiCalzi, 24, and three other Marines drowned. It was just six weeks into his first deployment with the battalion.
LiCalzi's family, the Marines and about 300 others gathered Saturday at his favorite surfing spot on Hempstead's Lido West Beach for a fundraiser in his honor. The Marines had made the 12-hour drive the night before.
"This morning, everything feels right except for the reason we're here," Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray said as a faint wind blew.
That the sprocket made an appearance had a special significance.
Hauling the chunk of steel, a part that causes the friction that makes the tank's chain track move, is a rite of passage. During training, LiCalzi carried it around for months.
"I have more pictures of [the] sprocket in the service than Mike," joked his father, Greg LiCalzi. "I have pictures of him with [the] sprocket in front of our house."
Aside from high school buddies, military brethren and family friends, there was one other person who had a deep connection to Michael LiCalzi.
And he didn't want the family to know why.
Capt. Aaron Smithley was the Marine who escorted LiCalzi's remains from Dover Air Force Base to Long Island.
It was a first for Smithley.
"Three combat deployments and I guarantee that was probably the hardest thing I've ever done," he said.
The family didn't need to know his role, he said yesterday. This day was about celebration. "It's all about Mike," Smithley said. "Today's his day."
The family said the 2-mile beach run-walk raised $55,000 for the Ace in the Hole Foundation, created in Michael LiCalzi's honor. The money will be divided among the Wounded Warrior Project, Huntington's disease Society of America, America's Vet Dogs, Adults and Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities, and needy families of the 2nd Tank Battalion.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
