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Marine Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer killed in Vietnam to finally come home.

 http//www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

 Friday, February 11, 2005

SUNY to honor star student-athlete's memory

        By Gabriel J. Wasserman 

        For the Poughkeepsie Journal

     NEW PALTZ -- Nearly 40 years after he was killed on his first day of  active duty, a Marine who left an enduring athletic legacy at SUNY Paltz can Be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

 The remains of Second Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer were identified in January from a tooth filling found at the site of a 1967 skirmish in Vietnam. The platoon commander was believed dead but listed as missing until the recently unearthed tooth was compared to dental records.

  ''As long as you don't know for sure, you always hold out hope,'' said his sister Thursday. The military informed Irene Healea last month that her brother's remains had been positively identified.

 Asked if the news has brought closure, the Tennessee resident said she was''coming around to that.''

 Ahlmeyer died in the Quang Tri province, where his long-range reconnaissance patrol was hit unexpectedly by grenades and small arms fire. Rescuers with a helicopter were unable to save him and three comrades.  

 Maybe ''one day my brother would come walking through that door,'' Healea said she had always figured.   Perhaps he had amnesia. ''You hold onto these things,'' she said.

 Memorial trophy

 The State University of New York at New Paltz held onto his spirit too. Awarded annually, the Heinz Ahlmeyer trophy honors an upper-class student's inspirational courage and dedication to team sports.  ''He was just one of those guys who had to be the leader,'' said Al Miller, Ahlmeyer's soccer coach. ''He was a bull -- a brilliant competitor.''   Ahlmeyer played with a toughness and a passion that have become legendary, according to Miller, college officials and former teammates. He also played baseball and swam backstroke for SUNY New Paltz.  ''He has been a symbol that I think the college will always be proud of,''  said Athletics Director Stuart Robinson, who presents the Ahlmeyer trophy at an annual banquet each year. When the award is given, Robinson added, ''You can hear a pin drop.''  The college plans to honor Ahlmeyer's memory at a special October ceremony that will include members of his 1965 soccer team.   The alumni weekend ceremony will commemorate the 40th anniversary of that team's state and Atlantic Coast regional championship victories, college spokesman Eric Gullickson said.

  Assemblyman William Parment, a Chautauqua County Democrat, was the 1965 team manager and Ahlmeyer's friend.   ''He was a great guy, big smile,'' Parment recalled Thursday. ''He was a weightlifter. He was in great physical condition. He had a  lot of hustle. It still remains a shock, a guy who was so full of life.''   

About a decade ago, Parment was asked to create a statewide day of POW-MIA recognition. He gained sponsors for a bill and spoke before the Assembly in Albany about it.    For the speech, Parment carried a list of the missing in his pocket. An advocacy group had supplied it, and Parment wanted the Assembly's official record to contain all the names.   At the time, he said, he did not know his former friend was among the missing. Ahlmeyer's name was on official memorials. Most people, including college officials, thought he was dead.

  ''I go to read it, and son of a gun, Heinz is the first name on the list,'' the assemblyman said. ''I got such a lump in my throat. I really couldn't talk for like a minute or more.'' 

 Parment and Miller recalled a letter Ahlmeyer had sent from Marine Corps boot camp. Miller read it aloud to the team. In it, Ahlmeyer joked the war preparations were easier than Miller's pre-season training.   ''We all had a laugh out of it,'' Miller said.

  ''It was pretty rigorous,'' Parment said of Miller's soccer camp. ''There was a lot of bonding.''   The identification of the remains reawakened sadness, Miller said, but ''I'm so glad he can come home.''   

Richie Lotze, a member of the 1965 team, remembered welcoming Ahlmeyer to New Paltz in 1963. A native of Pearl River in Rockland County, Ahlmeyer spent a year at a community college before Miller recruited him to transfer.   ''It's a pity he wasn't with us longer,'' said Lotze, a southern Dutchess County resident. ''It was like he was there and he was gone. He was well liked, well-remembered.'' 

  Ahlmeyer's name is engraved on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, and a flagpole in Pearl River's Braunsdorf Park bears his name. The family never had a final resting place for him.   Following a series of military scheduling procedures and discussions with families of other dead soldiers found with Ahlmeyer, burial in the federal  cemetery could happen this spring, Parment and Healea said.

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