Five Ridgewood residents from same neighborhood serve in the military
FEBRUARY 25, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015, 6:25 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
FOR THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
When Sam Combs, Pat Kiernan, Ryan Mansbach and Ben Rogers were small-yet-rough-and-tough neighbors growing up on South Irving Street and Arden Court, they played together a lot: riding scooters in the street, playing manhunt and street hockey, and doing bike jumps in the nearby woods.
It was a fun time, and a good time for bonding for four Ridgewood kids living on a dead end block, with each other’s houses in sight.
But years later, the four friends, plus Masbach’s older sister Melanie, have given up the kid stuff in favor of more strenuous activities – manning submarines, surveying the Pacific Ocean for mines, or piloting Army and Navy aircrafts.
Grown up and scattered around the country, the five neighbors now also have U.S. military service in common.
Melanie Mansbach, now 29, was the first on the block to express a military interest, attending West Point several years ago and becoming an officer. She was later deployed to Afghanistan.
The four neighborhood “boys” are now all either officers or soon-to-be officers in the U.S. Army or U.S. Navy.
Subtle neighborhood inspiration might have a little to do with this, but there was no consensus on that among the four young men, since they all took different paths into the military and had several influences. (Melanie, who is in training, was unavailable for an interview.)