Times
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS, INC.
THE BRICK
Vol. 15 - No. 5
Inside This Week’s Edition
Business Directory............................ 22 Classifieds......................................... 21 Community News.......................... 8-13 Dr. Izzy’s Sound News...................... 16 Fun Page .......................................... 23 Government ....................................... 7 Inside The Law ................................. 26 Letters to the Editor ............................ 6 Wolfgang ......................................... 27 WWW.MICROMEDIAPUBS.COM
May 28, 2016
Your FREE Weekly Hometown Newspaper | Serving Brick and Lakewood Townships
Remembering Sgt. Alan Kubik On Memorial Day, And Every Day
By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK – Army Ranger Sergeant Ronald Alan Kubik was just 21 years old when he died in a hail of bullets while on a secret mission in Afghanistan to track a “high value” target. A Taliban leader was training suicide bombers and was holed up in a compound, hiding behind women and children when he opened fire from the top of a staircase, killing Kubik, who led the charge, and fellow Army Ranger Jason Santora. “He was shot seven times with armor-piercing bullets, but he kept going up the stairs, and until he succumbed to his wounds, he held his ground,” said Kubik’s mother Eileen Daly of Brick. His actions saved 19 women and children and 10 soldiers, Daly said, and he earned the Silver Star, two Bronze Medals and a Purple Heart. Months later, Daly had an emotional visit to Fort Benning, Georgia (where Kubik had trained) with the surviving soldiers who were at the compound when her son died on the night of April 23, 2010. She said there is some comfort in knowing that there was nothing she could have said or done that would have stopped her son from becoming an Army Ranger after he graduated from high school. “I tried to encourage him to stay in school, but he was from the 9-11 generation, and he was sensitive to what happened; his uncle Dan Daly is a Fire Chief in New York
–Photos by Judy Smestad-Nunn and the Kubik Daly families At bottom right, Army Ranger Sergeant Ronald Alan Kubik’s sister Mary, left, and his mother Eileen Daly holding his medals. Kubik was struck by enemy bullets while on a secret mission in Afghanistan, April 2010. City, and my brother Dennis Daly was a Green Beret in the Vietnam War,” Daly said from her home in Lions Head South. “He said, ‘I can’t look the other way.’” Army recruiters came to his high school and Kubik went home pumped up and excited and wanted to become a Marine, but he was only 17, Daly recalled. “I said ‘I can’t sign for you. If you still want to join when you’re 18 you can sign yourself up,’” she said. A nd t hat’s just what he did af ter g raduating f rom Manasquan High School and completing one semester at Brookdale College. “It was Valentine’s Day 2007, I was at work, I was an R.N. at Kimball for 26 years, and he
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called and said he had news for me, that he signed up,” Daly said. He told the recruiter he would only sign up if he could train to be an Army Ranger, which is one of the toughest training schools a soldier can volunteer for. “After he signed up I fully supported his decision. I would visit him in Georgia and we would sing cadences together while we were walking in the rain,” she said. Daly said her son was a natural leader who spoke his mind, and encouraged others to follow their own path to make a difference. To retire as an Army Ranger, soldiers are required to deploy four times, or an average of three months a year for
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four years. His first deployment was to Afghanistan in 2008. His older sister Mary said he would call home but he couldn’t reveal anything. “It was very secret. He couldn’t say what the temperature was or what time it was. If he did he couldn’t call again for a couple of weeks,” she said from her mother’s living room. “We were very anxious,” Daly added. “He showed no emotion in his voice, that’s how they trained.” Mary was home protesting the war in Washington D.C. during her brother’s deployment. “I was protesting the policy makers and the people who send people to war. I told Ron I was protesting on his behalf,” she said. “He respected it towards the end.” Kubik’s second deployment was to Iraq in 2009, where he spent three months. “He didn’t say too much, it didn’t seem as bad as Afghanistan,” Mary recalled. Before his third and last deployment to Afghanistan, his Vietnam veteran Uncle Dennis tried to talk him out of going. “He said, ‘You’ve already gone over twice,’ but my son said ‘The conversation is over; I’m going because of my team,’’ Daly recalled. He wanted to retire as an Ar my Ranger, which required four deployments. The last time she spoke to her son was on Easter
By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK – A well-known Jersey Shore restaurateur has been chosen to build and operate a restaurant at the township-owned Traders Cove Park and Marina. Chefs International – who run the Lobster Shanty in Point Pleasant Beach, Water Street Grill in Toms River and 9th Avenue Pier in Belmar – will lease the land as part of a 24-year contract. “This is a big night in the Township of Brick’s history. It’s been a long process introducing the idea and asking for proposals...and choosing one and negotiating a lease,” said Mayor John G. Ducey at the May 17 council meeting. The restaurant would be seasonal, open from April until October – at least to begin
(Memorial - See Page 5)
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Brick Selects Well-Known Restaurateur To Run Traders Cove Spot
(Cove - See Page 4)
FIRE AWARDS FOR BRICK
–Photo by Judy Smestad-Nunn Kevin Batzel and Rich Orlando, center, alongside elected officials and their fellows from several Brick fire companies, as the pair receive recognition at the council meeting. By Judy Smestad-Nunn BRICK – Brick celebrated its fire personnel and its paid EMTs in a series of proclamations given at the recent council meeting. (Awards - See Page 5)
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