Born October 18, 1946, John A. Berdinka grew up in Westhampton and attended Westhampton Beach High School, from which he graduated in 1964. He went on to study automotive mechanics at Voorhees Technical Institute, part of the modern-day New York City College of Technology. After graduating, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

“I didn’t want to go into the Army and thought that if I joined the Navy, I wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam,” Berdinka said of his decision. “I was wrong about that.”

Berdinka completed boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois and was sent to his first duty station in Adak, Alaska, where he spent eight months. While there, he applied for automotive mechanic school, but was instead sent to heavy mechanic school, a change he didn’t mind.

He was sent to Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme, California, where he was assigned to Naval Schools Construction and received heavy mechanic training. He then applied to be sent to Rhode Island, but instead was transferred to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Mississippi. From there, he was deployed to Vietnam with Mobile Construction Battalion 128.

“I had an idea that we were going to be sent,” he said of his initial deployment. “At the base, I saw all the guys coming back.”

In Vietnam, Berdinka was assigned to a night field crew, which worked overnights to repair equipment in the field. They fixed everything from mud pumps and cranes to bulldozers and water wagons.

He recalled his first night of the 1968 Tet Offensive. “We weren’t supposed to leave the base, and they forgot to tell the gate guards not to let us out,” he said. “We were on the air field and they started mortaring the hell out of the place. We hid under a bulldozer that we were servicing until the mortars stopped.”

In July 1968, Berdinka was sent back to the U.S., where he received additional military and mechanical training until he received orders that December to return to Vietnam for another eight-month tour. This time, Berdinka requested to work in the shop, a request that was fulfilled. He spent his tour working the lube rack and heavy shop servicing vehicles, including rebuilding engines and transmissions.

“Everyone thought we had the worst job, but we had a lot of fun, and soon everyone was requesting to work on the lube rack,” he said.

Berdinka was separated from active duty in August 1969 and headed back home to Westhampton, where he went to work for George Eckart pumping gas and repairing cars, followed by a 10-year stint with Chesterfield Associates. He then worked for the Southampton Town Highway Department as a shop foreman, a position he held for 25 years before retiring.

He and his wife of 47 years, Dot, have four children – William, Matthew, Erik and Kristen – and reside in a home built by Berdinka’s father in the 1950s.

Berdinka is an active member of VFW Post 5350, the Arthur Ellis Hamm American Legion Post 834, and the Westhampton Beach Historical Society, for which he restored the Spanish cannon that sits in front of the society’s building. He also restores and shows classic cars, which have included a 1938 Willys Coupe, a 1936 Ford Sedan, a 1974 Cobra and a 1968 Corvette.

In gratitude of his service and sacrifice, the Westhampton Free Library paid tribute to Berdinka at a ceremony on May 18 as part of its Hometown Heroes initiative.

The Library’s 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 is so important to honor our local veterans,” said Westhampton Free Library Director Danielle Waskiewicz. “They made many sacrifices and deserve to be thanked.”

 

Photos courtesy of the Westhampton Free Library