Motorcyclists to honor Westmoreland service members lost in Vietnam War

Robert Acalotto was less than two years out of Norwin High School on Feb. 20, 1971, when the 20-year-old volunteered for risky Army duty in southeastern Laos.

He was never seen again after his four-man helicopter crew was shot down while providing gun cover for an emergency resupply mission.

“I was in eighth grade when he was shot down,” said Don Acalotto of North Huntingdon, who was just six years younger than the uncle who grew from childhood playmate to war hero.

According to Don Acalotto, his uncle was assigned as a door gunner on the chopper crew.

“They had to stay between the enemy and the big helicopters,” he said. “A buddy of his was sick and couldn’t go that day, so he volunteered to go.

“He was a hero to me.”

Still missing in action more than 50 years later, Staff Sgt. Robert Acalotto is among more than 90 service members from Westmoreland County who were lost in the Vietnam War.

In memory of his uncle, Don Acalotto will join with fellow motorcyclists to honor their sacrifice in Saturday’s Seventh Annual Fallen Heroes Ride in Westmoreland. The ride will begin and end at Z&M Harley-Davidson in Hempfield, stopping for a ceremony at the Norwin High School Veterans Memorial.

Robert Acalotto, a 1969 graduate of the school, is among those named on the memorial.

“Some of our riders are Vietnam veterans,” said Tony Aubrey of Operation Vet NOW. The Monroeville-based volunteer organization organizes the annual ride and also provides veterans with services and programs focused on improving their mental and physical wellness.

Aubrey, who retired from the Air Force in 2006, said it’s appropriate for this year’s ride to focus on the earlier generation of Vietnam-era veterans since it’s been 50 years since the war in which they served came to an end.

“We want to show our appreciation as they’re kind of passing on the torch,” he said. “We credit them for everything we are in the military today.”

Don Acalotto noted his uncle had enlisted in the Army — inspired to serve by an older brother, Dominic, who had a career in the Air Force. Attempts to rescue Robert Acalotto and the rest of his downed crew were unsuccessful because of a heavy enemy presence, military officials said.

Don Acalotto remembers one of the last times he saw his uncle before wartime duty called him away.

“We were sitting at the kitchen table at my grandmother’s, and I was rubbing my hand over the top of his head,” he said. “He had real curly hair, but it was all shaved off.

“It was tough losing him. He was like a big brother to me.”

Years later, officials were able to identify the remains of two members of Robert Acalotto’s helicopter crew, but his family members are still without closure concerning his fate.

His nephew can’t picture the young soldier being taken captive by enemy forces.

“He was a tough kid,” he said. “He wouldn’t let them take him. He wouldn’t go down without a fight.

“That’s the way I’ve made my mind rest a little.”

David Markovitz of Elizabeth also is taking part in the Fallen Heroes ride to honor an uncle — Greensburg native Sgt. Richard Ivory Cullen, who was killed in action at 20 on May 23, 1968.

Family members were told Cullen was targeted by a sniper while serving as an Army infantryman in South Vietnam’s Quang Tin Province, according to one of his younger siblings, David.

Richard Cullen was drafted into the Army in 1967, two years after graduating from Greensburg Salem High.

While he is laid to rest in Greensburg Catholic Cemetery, east of town, family members honor his memory during annual Memorial Day services at Westmoreland County Memorial Park, west of town. In 2022, the bridge that carries Greensburg’s North Main Street over railroad tracks was named in his honor.

A 2002 graduate of McKeesport Area High School, Markovitz never met his uncle, Richard Cullen. But Markovitz’s mother, the late Karen, kept alive for the family the memory of her older brother.

“She always talked about him and kept us involved in the Memorial Day services in Greensburg,” Markovitz said. “I know he was a wrestler in high school, and he enjoyed working on cars.”

A family photo bears witness to the fact Cullen, like the nephew he never met, also was an avid motorcyclist.

A former police officer who works in corrections, Markovitz is vice president of a local chapter of the Warthogs Motorcycle Club. That club, he noted, organizes rides in support of charitable efforts, including assisting fellow law enforcement officers in need.

The Fallen Heroes Ride, he said, provides another opportunity for him to pay tribute to his uncle. Most tellingly, the youngest of his three children, a 6-year-old daughter, has Richard Cullen’s middle name — Ivory — as her first name.

Passed down through the generations, it also was the maiden name of Cullen’s maternal grandmother, Josephine.

That’s not the only legacy that Richard Cullen has given to his family.

“It’s important to me to teach my kids what my mom taught me,” Markovitz said, “to let them know about the sacrifice he made.”