In Time For Veterans Day, Students Honor Navy Hero

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — Just in time for Veterans Day, students in the Hampton Bays School District paid tribute to a U.S. Navy veteran. In true Hampton Bays tradition, an American flag will fly for Leigh Penny throughout the month of November.

“The district is proud to honor Mr. Penny for his bravery and service to the United States,” said Superintendent of Schools Lars Clemensen.

The recognition was part of the district’s annual Veterans Day breakfast and ceremony, held Nov. 8 at Hampton Bays Elementary School; fourth grade students read Penny’s biography, spoke about the importance of Veterans Day and sang the songs of the armed forces’ five branches, the district said.

A native of Hampton Bays, Penny was born at Southampton Hospital in 1946. He attended Hampton Bays High School, where he participated in track and basketball. He remembered basketball as a challenge — he was not one of the taller boys on the team.

In June 1965, Penny graduated high school and joined the U.S. Navy in May, 1966. He attended basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Station outside of Chicago, Illinois. After basic training, he was assigned to the U.S. Navy Seabees and sent to California for training as an electrician, the district said.

Subsequent training was conducted in Rhode Island with the Navy’s Mobile Command Battalion One; he then headed Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for final training and integration with the U.S. Marines. In 1967, Penny received his orders and shipped out for Vietnam.

Penny’s base of operations was Red Beach located at Da Nang. He was frequently sent out on detachments with the Marines to build and rebuild bridges with a focus on the electrical wiring.

"This seemed like a never-ending assignment at times, because every time they completed a bridge, communist troops would come along and take it down," the district said. "During these assignments with the Marines, they were under constant attack from Communist troops, both the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army."

Despite continuous fire support from Navy ships in the South China Sea, 15 out of 20 men in Penny's detachment were casualties. "Even through all the chaos and confusion associated with his assignments, Penny found time to bring food to the children of local villages that were suffering from the ravages of war," the district said.

In 1968, Penny was rotated back to the States and assigned to Construction Battalion Unit 201 at the South Pole (Antarctica) for Operation Deep Freeze. He was at McMurdo Sound for the summers of 1968 and 1969.

"It was a major climate shock, as he went from the tropical jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam to one of the coldest places on earth, where the summers were short, cloudy and averaged a temperature of zero degrees before wind chill," the district said.

McMurdo Sound was a research facility for the study of astrophysics, biology, geology, glaciology and ocean climate systems. Because of the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, there were no military operations allowed, so the Navy assisted the scientific community — most of whom were from Massachusetts and Texas — with their research.

"Some of Penny’s fondest memories are of sitting around at night listening to the scientists talk about their work. While there, the military made its first jet landings on the ice with a C-141, a giant cargo plane. And although it was against regulations, Penny did happen to hide a penguin or two in his Quonset hut," the district said.

Penny married his high school sweetheart, Lyn, in 1969. Sadly, he lost her to pancreatic cancer in 2014. After his discharge from the Navy SeaBees in 1972 as a construction electrician 3rd class, he worked for three years as a special police officer for the Town of Southampton and then for New York Telephone, from which he retired in 1998. He went on to work part time at Hampton Bays High School and then took on a full-time assignment for 10 years with the Hampton Bays Fire Department.

Today, Penny continues his service as a member of the American Legion, the Hampton Bays Fire Department, the Telephone Pioneers and the United Methodist Thrift Shop of Hampton Bays. His most beloved activities are spending time with his six children — all Hampton Bays High School graduates — 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His family is located in Boston, Philadelphia, North Carolina and other parts of New York — and he said he loves to travel for visits.