Vietnam voices: Patrick Finnegan

Patrick Finnegan, 61, of upstate Middle Grove, was a 1965 graduate of Lynbrook High School. His brother, Dennis, a member of the 101st Airborne Division served three tours in Vietnam, including the summer months of 1969, when the two brothers were in uniform in different parts of the country. On Halloween 1972, with Hanoi and Washington preparing for cease-fire talks, Dennis Finnegan was completing his third tour of duty in Vietnam when the helicopter ferrying him homeward was downed by ground fire. Dennis Finnegan was the last Long Islander killed in Vietnam.

When my brother came home on leave in 1966, I had to look up Vietnam on a map. I didn't even know where it was. But when I saw that 101st Airborne patch on his uniform, I was so impressed I ran down to the recruiter and signed up.

I went over in between Christmas and New Year's 1968. It was what I had enlisted for, and I was finally going to find out for myself. . . . Hearing from guys coming back was a big part of it. My mind was changing before I even got there. They were saying the war wasn't worth it. This wasn't what we were being told back in the states. You fight like hell for a piece of land, leave, and three months later you're fighting for the same land again.

I was living out on the West Coast when he got killed. . . . He had been in a safe place down in Saigon. But nothing could protect you from a ground-to-air missile no matter what your job title was. I was proud of him as a young kid. I'm not unproud of him, or what he chose to do. I know you have to have armies. And you have to have people who are willing to go in them. There is a part of me who is proud that my brother was willing to put his life on the line time after time for what he believed in.