Friday, November 6, 2026
Richard Dikeman did not plan on a military career. He graduated from college during the Vietnam War draft lottery, and every job interview ended with the same question: What was his number?
“I had a lottery number of six,” Dikeman said.
That low number meant he was almost certain to be called up. Employers didn’t want to train someone who might soon be drafted, so Dikeman joined the New York Army National Guard. He stayed for about three decades, rising from private to major before he retired in 2002.
Dikeman, 76, was one of 13 veterans honored by Assemblywoman Judy Griffin at her 2026 Veterans Hall of Honor Ceremony on Oct. 18 at Malverne American Legion Post 44. The honorees ranged from a 102-year-old World War II veteran to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“To our honorees, thank you for your bravery, your sacrifices and your commitment to our country,” Griffin said at the ceremony.
Dikeman has lived in Valley Stream since his parents moved there when he was 1. He went to kindergarten at the old Franklin Avenue Grammar School and spent eight years at Holy Name of Mary School. He then attended a Catholic high school in Jamaica, Queens, and studied photographic technology at SUNY Farmingdale.
“I lived in Valley Stream all my life. … I’ve been in this house for 70 years,” Dikeman said.
His Guard career began at the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, in a newly formed artillery unit built around the Honest John rocket. After training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Dikeman came back as one of the first soldiers in the unit trained on the weapon. He was quickly promoted to sergeant and later rose to sergeant first class.
His commander, a former tank commander in Vietnam, pushed him to apply to officer candidate school. After finishing the two-year program, Dikeman was assigned to a struggling artillery battery in the South Bronx. Over three years there, he said, he turned a unit nobody wanted to join into one everyone wanted to be part of. He said the young soldiers, many of whom others had overlooked, became “some of the finest artillerymen in New York State.”
After the 105th Field Artillery was disbanded in 1985, Dikeman became a fire support officer, training forward observers to call in artillery strikes. He later worked in planning at division artillery. When that headquarters moved to Massachusetts, he was sent to division headquarters in Troy. For six years he drove from Valley Stream once a month, three hours each way, and paid for his own hotel rooms. Part of his job there was to serve as a nuclear target analyst.
In 2001, Dikeman was assigned as fire support officer to an aviation brigade based in Patchogue. He returned from a training exercise at Fort Polk, Louisiana, two weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. In the days that followed, his unit set up a command post in Battery Park. For six weeks he served as a liaison to the New York City Police Department, sending Guard members on rooftop searches as the city worked to reopen Wall Street.
During that time, an officer invited him to his American Legion post in Brooklyn, where Dikeman stayed a member for 20 years. He joined the Malverne post after running into an old friend, retired Brig. Gen. Pat Alesia, outside a Valley Stream CVS.
Alesia, who also lives in Valley Stream, was the 42nd Infantry Division’s artillery commander when he promoted Dikeman from captain to major, after Dikeman applied for an opening in fire support. At the Malverne post, Dikeman became membership officer. Last year, the post received a streamer from the American Legion Department of New York for reaching 105 percent of its membership goal.
“He’s a little low-key, but whatever you ask him to do, he does, and we’re much better for having him in our organization,” Alesia said.
Dikeman retired in March 2002 when he reached the mandatory retirement age for his rank. A post-9/11 freeze on promotions kept him from becoming a lieutenant colonel, which would have let him serve longer.
