South Brunswick Honors Fallen Service Members At Memorial Day Service

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — Township officials and residents gathered at VFW Post 9111 to honor America’s fallen service members at a Memorial Day service held Monday.

The service, which took place at 11 Henderson Road in Kendall Park, included prayers and singing of the national anthem. Members of the boys and girls scouts were present for the ceremony, and Mayor Charlie Carley appreciated their presence.

“Memorial Day is about memory, and memory passes from generation to generation,” Carley said.

The South Brunswick Public Library dedicated a webpage highlighting the service of six fallen residents and their service to the country.

• First Lt. Seth Dvorin graduated from South Brunswick High School in 1998 and died near Iskandariyah, Iraq, after a roadside bomb exploded while he was conducting a counter explosive mission. Dvorin was an officer in the 10th Mountain Division, Battery B, 3rd. Battalion, 62nd. Air Defense Artillery Regiment of the United States Army. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and posthumously promoted from Second to First Lieutenant.
• Pfc. Gary Buttenbaum was the first graduate of South Brunswick High School to sacrifice his life in service to his country in Vietnam. He was killed by rifle fire on his thirteenth day in combat. Buttenbaum was married at the time and lived in Kendall Park.
• Kendall Park resident Raymond Albietz was killed in action by in Vietnam on Jan. 22, 1967, six months after enlisting. He is interred in Franklin Memorial Park in North Brunswick.
• Life-long Dayton resident Timothy C. Ochs was only 21 when he died in Vietnam. He was killed in an ambush near Saigon on Jan. 30, 1968, just six days after visiting his parents back home. He graduated from South Brunswick High School in 1965.
• Stephen Chester Ponty attended South Brunswick High School and his tour of Vietnam started March 8, 1968. He served in the 187th Assault Helicopter Company, where he was a Specialist 4 and worked in helicopter repair. Ponty was killed in action on Dec. 28, 1968 creating a smokescreen so the Command and Control Aircraft could land safely.
• LCpl Sean F. Estler was a Kendall Park resident who graduated from South Brunswick High School in 1982. Estler died on Oct. 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon from injuries sustained after a suicide truck bomb attack on the Marine Barracks.

To read more about them, click here.