Mattituck High School honors 14 alumni who served in armed forces

Mattituck High School’s Wall of Honor was expanded by 14 names as the district held its fifth annual dedication ceremony Friday morning.

This year’s ceremony took on added significance as several inductees were students themselves when the wall was created, Superintendent Shawn Petretti said.

“It’s come full circle,” he said. “This is the first year that some of the people that are being inducted were in the hallways when we created the wall.”

The tradition began in 2017 and started with over 40 plaques. Each plaque displays the name of a Mattituck alumni and the branch of service they represent. The alumni honored on the wall date back from 1937 to present. The wall now totals 128 honorees, Mr. Petretti said.

“This wall is a very important part of the history of our school and community and its important that we continue with this work,” he said.

The plaques are funded through donations from businesses like East End Sporting Goods, the Southold Town Police Benevolent Association, the Sheryll family and the Mattituck-Southold-Greenport NJROTC.

Senior Chief Charles Turner, an NJROTC instructor, said 45 former members of the NJROTC are now on the wall and he spoke to the audience of his pride seeing their photos.

“Today I couldn’t be more proud of all the former cadets for all their accomplishments in the military,” he said. “I would have been honored to serve with any of them.”

The 14 service members recognized for their bravery and service this year include:

Edward J. van Ryswyk, Class of 1944 – U.S. Navy

Francis S. Ficner, Class of 1945 – U.S. Marine Corps 

Frederick Stelzer, Class of 1957 – U.S. Air Force

Henry S. Bochan, Class of 1970 – U.S.Air Force

James Francis McEntee, Class of 1979 – U.S. Navy

Tyler H. Pase, Class of 2011 – U.S. Army

Lauren Waters, Class of 2014 – U.S. Air Force

Benjamin Schmidt, Class of 2017 – U.S. Air Force

Samantha Husak, Class of 2017 – U.S. Army 

Liam B. Corbley, Class of 2018 – U.S. Army

Charles R. Sisino, Class of 2018 – U.S. Army

Adam C Webb, Class of 2019 – U.S. Navy 

Rachel L. Park, Class of 2020- U.S. Navy

Luke Wojtaś, Class of 2020- U.S. Army