Some of my classmates may wonder whatever happened to Arnie Daxe, a fellow 1959 classmate of GN North. Well, it is/was a fairly simple story.

After graduation, and leaving Kensington with just a bit of remorse, I followed my sister who graduated in 1956 to Boston University, majoring in business. Simultaneously, I enrolled in Army ROTC, along with Peter Fidel, another classmate and senior year roommate, and received my BA degree as well as a Commission in the US Army Reserves as a 2nd Lieut. in the Infantry (not my first choice).

Within a few months, I was off to Fort Benning, GA and after a few weeks, while doing PT on November 22, 1963, a soldier from our orderly room came running out to our track and shouted “The President has been shot!” Talk about a career changing moment for me, the rest of our company, and the Country! After listening many times to his speech when JFK uttered those memorable words “Ask not what you can do for yourself, but what YOU can do for our country”, I took them to heart.

Shortly on my way to Korea on my first assignment, those words made a huge impression with me, and I pondered whether I wanted to go into my dad’s clothing business in Manhattan, or whether I wanted to do something for my country and try being a Soldier for a while.

Obviously, my choice was the latter, unlike many of my classmates who choose a different profession, so I set out to being the best US Army officer I could be. I returned to the States, transferred from Infantry to Military Police (MP) and two years later was in Vietnam commanding an MP company - the 615 th MP Company.

Additionally, to go along with my internal promise, I decided to get sworn in the Regular Army which pleased my mom but not so my dad. He partnered with another NYU grad after he graduated in 1921 and made a name for himself in the men’s clothing business at 85 5th Ave, NYC. That just wasn’t my cup of tea in the turbulent 60’s.

When I arrived in 'Nam in 1967, I was looking forward to being an MP company commander. However, when I arrived, little did I know the 18th MP Brigade HQ was looking for a supply officer so that is where I wound up for six months until I finally got my company. I needed a bit more excitement than looking around for supplies to keep the generals and colonels happy, so I wound up asking my boss for one day off a weekend so that I could travel by Jeep to the air base in Bien Hoa and fly as a door gunner with the 68th AHC (assault helo company) to allow an Army soldier a day off.

The war was fast and furious in those heady days of '67 and when I trained on an M-60 machine-gun, I then started flying combat missions as a Huey (Bell UH-1) door gunner, part of a four man crew.

For the time I spent doing that without getting my ass shot off (yes, there were some dicey moments) I came home with two Air Medals and a few other military decorations.

I never did tell my parents, who would have been pissed if they found out. A good Great Neck Jewish kid flying door gunner? You got to be kidding me!! Nope. Enough excitement to last me a lifetime. But a young private was able to rest for a day as I stood in for him. That was my boy scout good deed for 'Nam.

In August, 1967, I then got my company (615th Military Police, “the Bloodhounds”) which is still part of the US Army forces located in Vilseck, Germany. Arnie Daxe, Col, USA RET., visited this great MP company in March, 2023.

After the Tet offensive (remember that?) in 1968, I returned home and was relieved to see that my dad was finally supportive.

A few months later, I married Lorraine Schwartz, a wonderful and loving girl in Miami. We spent a super 50 years together serving our country and growing our family in the States and overseas in Belgium.

Despite moving around 21 times, we managed to have two wonderful children whom between them gave us five grandchildren unevenly split between my current home in Burke, VA and Smyrna, GA where my son, Jeff, is a lawyer. My daughter has also done well and is a Senior Manager for Deloitte. I bade goodbye to my well-worn uniform and retired after close to 29 years of service at Ft. Myer, VA.

After a year of relaxing and wondering what the next step would be, I got hired by a colleague at The World Bank Group in Washington, D.C., and spent the next 14 years traveling the world – specifically the sub-Saharan Africa region as a security fire-life consultant with 38 countries in my portfolio among others. I took four trips a year giving the Bank’s American Express contacts heartburn when I designed an itinerary which included Francophone (French) and Anglophone (English) speaking countries. They said it wouldn’t work but I thought it ridiculous not to be able to travel to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi (mixing Francophone and Anglophone) without returning to Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris.

Somehow, we made it work and I only lost my baggage once because of a stupid tag error at Dulles. Yes, they found my luggage in Mali because of a misspelled baggage tag! (Take note ye travelers, it could happen to you). I was able to take Lorraine on my last trip to South Africa and we had a grand time visiting the top of Table Mountain and were able to drink a bottle of Two Oceans chardonnay. Meantime, my wife secured a teaching position with the Alexandria School District, a job she loved, until she had to retire under disability statutes after 14 years of teaching. For her, it was the start of long 13 year battle with cancer, an insidious disease that took her mother and sister and others in her family. Lorraine unfortunately passed in 2020 and she is interred In Arlington National Cemetery.

After leaving the World Bank in 2008, I landed a project manager position at the International Association of Police Chiefs (IACP) in Alexandria, VA., and spent three years writing manuals focused on sworn police officers returning from Iraq who were decidedly unhappy with their career and job status, a project funded by the Dept of Justice. I was able to meet and work with dozens of state, local and federal police departments, a position that would assist me when I left IACP and started my volunteer career in 2011 to this day.

After retiring from the Service, we bought a house in Burke, VA where I live to this day.

I then started my volunteering path with the USO at Ft. Belvoir and at Dulles airport and found myself also involved with the National Park Service on their C&O Canal bike patrol and with the Honor Flight Chicago organization (www.HonorFlightChicago.org).

In the following photo, I am arriving at Dulles on a special Southwest airplane aboard the 100th honor flight with my daughter, Shelly, as my guardian. The gentleman next to her wearing the Medal of Honor (MoH) is Harvey C. Barnum Jr., (Barney) Col, USMC, Ret. He was our neighbor at Ft. Leavenworth where we both went to major's finishing school in 1975. Google him and wonder in awe how the hell he was still alive to receive the MoH for alor in Vietnam from the Secretary of the Navy. Quite an unbelievable honor for a great Marine.

I continue to volunteer with the bike patrols, the USO, and Honor Flight Chicago, and enjoy my role as Morning Lead – HF Chicago for seven flights from Chicago’s Midway airport to Dulles airport carrying as many as 115 WWII, Korea and Vietnam veterans to their monuments in the National Capital Region. The HF Chicago execs invited me to make the 100th trip to Dulles in April 2022 and it was the flight of my life. I designated my daughter, Shelly, as my guardian, and she invited her godfather, Barney, to join us when we arrived at Dulles. It was a heartwarming, emotional, and most memorable moment for me. We will resume our seven flights this season – 2023 – and the April flight will ferry our 10,000th veteran to Dulles. When I stated earlier that being a part of IACP came with unusual contacts, I have employed ten area law enforcement agencies that provide honor guards and motorcycle escorts for each flight.

I boarded the two hour flight and returned to Chicago for a big hoorah and an amazing reception of many greeters, a band, and veterans’ families at the end of the day.

The weather was quite pleasant for early April. This was an emotional day for me and the other 115 veterans including two from WWII!. I was truly honored to be a part of this. It was more than wonderful. It was really a very emotional and exciting day. Shelly somehow managed to get a hold of Barney, and requested that he come to Dulles to honor me. He was the first MoH recipient in the nine years of these flights to attend the arrival of our veterans. I was proud to have been one of those, so honored, and look back at that great April day with pride, excitement, and with great dose of humility.

There were a number of congregants from our local synagogue, Adat Reyim, who joined the crowd of greeters to witness and experience the day. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me. I was a humbled and very proud veteran. Sorry other Great Neck folks were not there to experience this wonderful event. However, we have seven flights per season, through October, and I would love to be surprised. We even provide free parking.

This was displayed at the Chicago’s Midway Airport where our Southwest flight originated.

It was more than wonderful. It was really a very emotional and memorable day.

The picture below depicts Shelly, Barney, and Juan Garcia (who took Barney’s job when he left the Pentagon few years back as the Deputy Assistant of the Navy).

It was a once in a lifetime event for me, and I remain humbled and a very proud veteran.

Veterans Day

Several Veterans Day observances are planned in November in Washington, D.C., with a wreath-laying at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Other events include the National Veterans Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery and the National Mall marking the 41th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Honor Flight Vets gathered on the WWII Memorial to watch the UCMC Quiet Drill Team.

In the image below, I am placing a finger at an etched inscription of my friend, Sargeant Major Kenneth Kidd, killed in Vietnam in 1968.

For the 100th flight, I flew to Chicago to be on the honor flight to Dulles with 115 other vets and staff and then return with them for a big airport reception in Chicago that evening. The flight included a medical group, some Chicago-based Guardians, a public affairs team and a few others. Southwest Airlines was chosen to do the honors.

In May 2022, I was inducted into the United States Army Military Police Corps Regimental Hall of Fame, a capstone of my military service.

For my last overseas travel in 2023, I was determined to fly to Germany and visit with the Soldiers who comprise the 615th Military Police Company today. It was an exciting and most satisfying return to a personal history project for me to explain to 150 MPs the contrast between policing in the 60’s vice 20’s. A unique challenge but an enjoyable one. Note: The main difference was the 60’s contained drafted soldiers without females and today, most soldiers are volunteers and 20% of the company’s strength are women.

So, like some of you, I turned 82 this year and am blessed with pretty good health attributable to a reasonable diet, great genes, a decent regimen of simple exercise, and plenty of love from my children and grandchildren. I hope all of you are so blessed. Perhaps we will meet again at a future Class of 1959 gathering somewhere outside Nassau County. Certainly not the 100th but maybe the seventy-fifth?

My final resolution is that Mike Arlow continues, without a doubt, the best high school website on the internet. He deserves a cornucopia of gratitude from the Class of 1959.

From Burke, Virginia: PEACE