Community mourns the loss of a loved veteran

“Everyone respected my father. You couldn’t help it.” Tom Bennet Jr. remembers his father, Tom Bennet Sr., fondly today, along with several residents of the Elmont community, for which Tom was a leader and activist for several years. Tom, who resided on Sun Avenue in Elmont, died in January after suffering from a major heart attack. He was 78 years old.

A Korean War veteran, Tom was passionate about veterans affairs and education, and served as commander of the Elmont Veterans Foreign Wars Post 455 for the past 40 years. Before becoming commander, Tom was a VFW member for 10 years. He was also very active with the American Legion.

Bennet said Tom wasn’t active in the community for the publicity. “He believed you do it because you love it, not because you want your name in the paper … he never asked for adulation or applause,” Bennet said. “He was the real deal … he did what he did because of his love of God, his country and his family.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, Tom was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. In 1968, when Tom was 38, he worked at the post office and part-time as the head of customer service for Durkee Foods, which was orginally located in Rockville Centre. When Tom was offered a full-time position with Durkee, he accepted. “His boss saw something in him and took a chance. He never finished the ninth grade. He never regretted it,” said Bennet.

In 1969, Tom moved to Elmont with his wife, Peggy, to raise a family. The couple raised five boys — Billy, Michael, Timmy, Patrick and Tom — and were married for 43 years. The couple were best friends, and were inseparable, Bennet said. “They were some pair … I used to joke with them how they morphed into one body,” he said.

“He taught all of us how to be men. Mean what you say, and say what you mean,” Bennet said about growing up with his father.

After retiring in 1998, Tom devoted himself to his local VFW organization and to Prisoners of War/Missing in Action programs. He even founded the POW/MIA Memorial Service, held each April at the St. Frances De Chantal Church in Wantagh. He was very passionate about veterans’ organizations and services due to his own service in the Korean War, where he was injured and saved from death by a soldier he never knew. “He felt compelled to pay back,” Bennet said, adding that Tom received a Purple Heart award for his service in the war.

“He was quite a man,” said Bill Garnett, a friend of Tom’s. “Anyone, especially veterans, if they needed something, Tom was the first one to go out of the way to make sure that if he couldn’t get you to where you needed to go, he would point you in the right direction.”

Tom also became very active with schools in the community, visiting schools and talking with students about the Patriot Program, a program created to instill love and respect of the flag, veterans and country. As a local VFW leader, Tom raised money to purchase dictionaries for local grade schools. Tom was a family man, and was extremely close to his sons. In October, Tom, Bennet and Bennet’s family took a 10-day trip Ireland. The trip meant a lot to Tom and the Bennet family, who are of Irish descent, Bennet said.

Tom and Bennet joined each other in several activities, including marching together in New York City’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, held on March 17. Additionally. “We were more like brothers than father and son,” Bennet said. Bennet said Tom loved going to a different baseball stadium every year in May — a trip Bennet and his brothers put together. Tom was also a huge fan of the blues, and adored going to shows. He particularly loved telling a story about when he met Joe Williams, a jazz and blues singer, who hugged Tom and told him he was doing a great job as a father.

A loving and compassionate man, if there was one thing Tom was a stickler about, it was the spelling of his last name. “I called him ‘Mr. B,’” Garnett said, laughing. “He said, ‘I don’t care what you call me, as long as you spell my name right.’”