Long Island Veterans Of Foreign Wars Honor Fallen Green Beret

MEDFORD, NY — U.S. Army veteran John Reuter had just moved to Sipp Avenue in Medford when he noticed that it was dedicated in honor of Staff Sgt. Keith Bishop.

But even with his involvement with the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, he was unfamiliar with the fallen soldier's story, so he did some research.

"I'm like, 'I never heard of this guy,' so I googled him," said Reuter, who is the senior vice commander of the post. "I found out the history and the whole nine yards."

Bishop, who grew up in Medford, was in the elite U.S. Army special forces division of the Green Berets and died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2009.

It was during a covert action in the Badghis Province with the goal of shutting down the sale of heroin-producing opium that the Taliban was using to fund their operation, Newsday reported.

About one dozen insurgents were killed in a firefight, but as an HM-47 helicopter lifted off, the flight crew was blinded by dust from the chopper's wings as it clipped a nearby structure and then fell to the ground, according to the outlet.

Bishop was one of seven soldiers and three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel killed that day, the outlet reported.

Reuter said the thought came upon him that Bishop would be a good candidate as a namesake for the local VFW which had previously been dedicated in the name of a soldier who died during World War II but from Yaphank and with no connection to the hamlet of Medford.

It was a process that was two years in the making.

When Reuter and the VFW finally got approval he started out on his quest to notify people that the facility's name would be changed to recognize Bishop as its namesake this month he still ran into some roadblocks.

"No one really heard the name of Keith Bishop," Reuter said.

Bishop graduated high school in the Patchogue-Medford School District before joining the Army and was a member-at-large of the VFW.

"Keith was the only son of Medford that was killed in the war on terror from Medford," he said. "Nobody else from Medford was killed, so I figured we should honor him at some point. He was so close to our post and was at the high school. I'm living on the road that he grew up on. It was like all the things were just falling into place. And, that is what happened."

Bishop's best friend, Matt Catapano, who grew up with him and remained close to him until his untimely death, has donated the plaque that will adorn his permanent monument at the VFW.

It will be dedicated on Oct. 22 with a U.S. Army Color Guard on hand, as well as Bishop's family and friends.

Catapano, who still lives next door to Bishop's childhood home, said their mothers were friends and the two were pregnant at the same time. Later, the pair of friends went to Barton Elementary School and then on to Saxon Middle School before high school.

Bishop's death is still surreal for him.

"I still feel like I'm going to look over my shoulder and he is going to be there," he said. "It doesn't go away."