Hampton Bays Schools Honor Veteran

The Hampton Bays School District recognized veteran Bob Ettl by flying an American flag throughout the month of December.

During an assembly in his honor, high school student Ian Hubbard read his “Voice of Democracy” essay, while fellow student Michael Blanco read Ettl’s biography. The ceremony culminated with the raising of the flag on the school’s flagpole.

Mr. Ettl joined the Army in 1968, one year after graduating from Marist College. After basic training, he went to Fort Gordon, Georgia, for cryptography training and was told he would be assigned to NATO headquarters in Europe. For 12 weeks, he studied and learned everything he could and was the honor graduate of his class. Rather than Europe, he and his entire graduating class were sent to Vietnam.

In January 1969, Mr. Ettl found himself stationed in the Northern I Corps in the Hue/Phu Bai area of Vietnam with the 26th General Support Group. The group was responsible for operations with the 101st Airborne Division. During the next 12 months, he moved around to different fire support bases, the 101st base camp (Camp Eagle) and eventually A Shau Valley. He transferred back to the U.S. and, after 18 months in the Army, was discharged and sent home.

Once settled back at home, Ettl went to work in a management training program for New York Telephone. He used his GI Bill benefits to complete two graduate degrees in night school, one in marketing from Iona College and the other in public information systems from the New York Institute of Technology. After several years with New York Telephone, he was transferred to AT&T Global Headquarters in New Jersey. While at AT&T, he attended Penn State for a graduate degree in global business management and to the University of Michigan for postgraduate certification in strategic management. During this period with AT&T, Mr. Ettl worked on projects with Lucent Technologies, the U.S. government, Bell Laboratories and the Boeing Company.

In 1984, Ettl left the business world and became a professor of management at Southampton College, Long Island University. After the campus was closed, he taught in the graduate program at Stony Brook University and the master’s program at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He joined and is still a member of the graduate faculty of the Seoul School of Integrated Science and Technology in South Korea.

In 1998, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, for which he held assignments with the boat crew and as master instructor, flotilla commander and eventually division commander of Division 18, located on Long Island’s East End. He now spends time supporting operations at Station Shinnecock and is an active member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and 101st Airborne Association.

The Hampton Bays resident enjoys spending time with his five grandchildren.