Friends and Family Toast Point Boro Marine Before He Returns to Duty

Crowds flocked to the VFW Post 4715 in Point Beach, on Friday night, to share laughs and good wishes with Kevin Nickerson before he returns to active duty in the US Marines.

But on Friday night, Nickerson was focusing on having fun with his friends, including some like Justin O'Connor and Chris Kiley, who grew up with him.

Patricia Mariani, another longtime Point Borough friend, said she had been on the squad that cheered for Nickerson's Pop Warner football team

"My brother was a Marine too, I'm very proud of Kevin," she said.

Point Borough Councilmen Chris Leitner and Robert Sabosik attended the party, with Leitner publicly paying tribute to Nickerson, calling him a "hero" and toasting to his service and continued well being.

"Stay safe because the world needs more people like you," Leitner said.

At the strong urging of his exuberant friends chanting, "Speech, speech," Nickerson finally took the microphone and said, "OK, I've never done anything like this in my life. But I just want to say I can't thank everyone enough for coming out tonight.

"You guys were really thinking about me when I was over there, and my best friends over there. This isn't just about me. It's about all the men and women serving. You really support me and it means the world to me, thank you very much," he said.

The evening had begun with a caravan of Point Borough fire rigs charging down Curtis Avenue, where Nickerson lives with his family. Firefighters shook hands with Nickerson outside his home and then followed him to the party at the VFW post.

Barbara Nickerson, Kevin's mother, credited Sharon Beaton of the VFW Post's Ladies Auxiliary with planning and pulling off the party in her son's honor.

"This wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for her," said Barbara Nickerson, sending Beaton an appreciative look.

Beaton said she had become friends with Barbara and Don Nickerson and wanted to help them welcome their son home. Beaton said many VFW members and friends cooked and donated food and drink for the party.

She said the VFW has held parties before for service members who have returned home, either temporarily or permanently.

"But I've never seen a party here as big as this," she said, looking around the room at the crowd of at least a few hundred people.

And donations from local businesses were a huge boost, she added. O'Brien's Florist, Bridge Avenue, Point Borough, donated centerpieces of red, white and blue flowers and balloons; in Point Beach, Country Bakery, Bridge Avenue, Point Borough, and US Subs, Route 88, Point Borough, donated food, and Mueller's Bakery, Bridge Avenue in Bay Head, donated the cake.

Nickerson shook hands and posed for photographs with veterans such as Bill Lewis, 89, a longtime Point Borough resident who served in the Navy during World War II from 1942 to 1946, and Alan Forde, a VFW member and Jackson resident who was a Marine in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968.

Seeing the shindig thrown in Nickerson's honor had a unique meaning to Forde.

"They didn't have anything like this for us," said Forde, waving his hand around the VFW Hall, festooned with balloons, flowers, lights and streamers, where friends and family shared drinks, food and a lot of laughs with Nickerson.

"We were shunned," Forde continued. "Even some military organizations didn't want to talk to us. It wasn't until 40 years later that some of us got commendations."

"I'm glad the men and women coming home today aren't treated the way we were treated," said Forde.

He said he voluntarily enlisted in the Marines, so he could see the battlegrounds for himself.

"I went in anti-war and I came out anti-war," he said. "That war was a waste of time and a waste of lives."

Forde said he's glad the US has withdrawn from Iraq and is also in the process of drawing down troops from Afghanistan.

Nickerson has said he wants to serve again in Afghanistan because he felt like he and his fellow service members were helping to keep civilian Afghanistans safe and training those in the military to secure the country on their own when the last of the US troops have been withdrawn.