In gratitude of his service and sacrifice, the Westhampton Free Library paid tribute to Frederick Bauer, a Westhampton Marine Corps veteran, at a ceremony on April 27 as part of its new Hometown Heroes initiative.
The Library’s latest yearlong installment of its Hometown Heroes initiative aims to honor local veterans from the Arthur Ellis Hamm American Legion Post 834 on a monthly basis, with a culminating ceremony scheduled for January 2020. It comes on the heels of the preceding Hometown Heroes program in which the library recognized veterans associated with Westhampton Beach VFW Post 5350.
“It is so important to honor our local veterans,” said Westhampton Free Library Director Danielle Waskiewicz. “They made many sacrifices and deserve to be thanked.”
During the ceremony, held at the Westhampton Beach Fire Department and attended by fellow Legionnaires, library representatives, family members and public officials, Bauer was presented with proclamations and an American flag.
Born September 4, 1959, Frederick W. Bauer grew up in Westhampton and graduated from Westhampton Beach High School in 1977. Following graduation, he attended the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in air commerce/transportation technology. While there, he participated in the school’s Army ROTC program and completed the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course, which entailed two six-week stints at Officer Candidates School at Quantico, Virginia. Upon graduating in 1981, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“I always wanted to go into the Marine Corps,” he said. “I can’t tell you why. I just did.”
Then it was back to Quantico to complete further training at the Basic School. Bauer noted that the Marine Corps is the only branch of the military requiring all of its officers to undergo such training prior to attending the school of their military occupational specialty.
“We joked that this is where the Corps taught you to be an officer and a gentleman,” he said of TBS, “but more importantly, it gave everyone a working knowledge of how the Marine Corps works and firsthand experience in the field with infantry tactics, calling for supporting arms, and an understanding of all the specialties in the Corps. When they say, ‘Every Marine is a rifleman,’ it includes everyone — male, female, officer, enlisted and every specialty.”
Bauer intended to attend flight school after training, but he failed the eye test and returned to Quantico to attend the Infantry Officer Basic Course. Along with learning infantry tactics, patrolling, weapons training that included machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars, and how to call for artillery, Naval gunfire and air support, Bauer recalls exhilarating experiences such as rappelling from a tower and helicopters, fast roping, SPIE (Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction) rig insertions and extractions, and amphibious operations.
After completing IOBC, he was assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in Camp Pendleton, California, where he commanded the 1st Platoon.
While in California, the battalion deployed for mountain warfare training at Bridgeport, desert warfare training at 29 Palms and amphibious warfare training at Coronado. They were then deployed to Okinawa, Japan for six months, during which they trained for one month in the Philippines.
Once he had finished his time with the rifle platoon, Bauer served as the battalion’s legal officer before joining the 17th and 11th Military Expedition Units, where he was in charge of the aggressor company for large exercises. During this period, he had the privilege of working with an exchange unit from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
Bauer then decided to obtain a second specialty and joined the Joint Public Affairs Office serving Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and the 1st Marine Division. He served as a press officer for six months before completing active duty in 1985.
His time as a press officer led him to the Marine Corps Reserve, where he was assigned to the public affairs unit. In this position, he participated in a number of active-duty tours with U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon and was part of Exercise Team Spirit in South Korea.
Bauer also worked in his family’s businesses, which included a garden center, landscaping and excavating, among other areas of work, and joined the Westhampton Beach Fire Department.
He married his wife, G. Terrie Hentschel, in 1987, and with her and her brother-in-law, purchased the William G. Hentschel Insurance Agency from her parents. The couple still owns the agency, where Bauer worked for 20 years before becoming self-employed.
During this time, he joined the 106th Rescue Wing in Westhampton Beach as the public affairs officer, attending the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. It was a very busy and exciting time to be with the unit; during it, the H-3 Jolly Green Giant helicopters that had served in Vietnam were replaced with the H-60s that the unit still flies. The unit also became the lead rescue unit for every shuttle launch, and they grieved the loss of members during the 1991 Perfect Storm that hit the East Coast. Bauer, along with another member of the unit, was also deployed to Jamaica to help document the U.S. military’s efforts to help rebuild schools that had been destroyed in 1988’s Hurricane Gilbert.
Like most guard units, the members of Bauer’s unit came from many backgrounds and all branches of the active military. His number-one person in the public affairs office was Joe Ricker, a former Navy Seabee and Korean War veteran. There were also many former Marines, and the unit would celebrate the Marine Corps birthday every November.
With work and family consuming much of his time, Bauer left the guard in 1992.
Bauer is a member of the Kiwanis Club and American Legion. He is also a 30-year member of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department, for which he has served as a public affairs officer, interior firefighter, driver and member of the dive team, as well as a commissioner with the Westhampton Beach Fire District.
He is the very proud father of two daughters and two grandchildren. His daughter Brittany is a teacher and married to Sam Howerton, who is active duty with the U.S. Navy in the submarine service. They have two children, Carter and Delaney. His younger daughter, Lauren, will soon be graduating summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary after attending the school for just three years. She has been invited to join Phi Beta Kappa and plans to do volunteer work before entering law school.
Photo courtesy of the Westhampton Free Library