Walter J. Wetzel Triangle is a small park bound by Cohancy Street, 156th Avenue, 99th Street, and 157th Avenue, in the

Howard Beach Howard Beach is a neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, to the south by Jamaica Bay in Broad Channel, to the east by 1 ...

neighborhood of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Walter 'Jo' Wetzel was born on September 16, 1944, and grew up in Howard Beach. An avid athlete, he attended the local grammar school (Our Lady of Grace) where he starred in both baseball and basketball. He also attended St. John's Preparatory School and

Far Rockaway High School Far Rockaway High School was a public high school in New York City, at 821 Bay 25th Street in Far Rockaway in the borough of Queens. It operated from 1897 to 2011. Its alumni include three Nobel Prize laureates and convicted fraudster Bernard M ...

where he played varsity basketball. After graduating from Far Rockaway High School, he worked briefly with the city's Parks Department. Wetzel was drafted into the Army in October 1965 and completed his training at

Fort Dix Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force A ...

, New Jersey before being deployed to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. He was the oldest of seven children, two of whom he never met. PFC Wetzel started his tour of Vietnam on May 8, 1966, and was killed in action 21 days later during the battle of LZ 10 Alpha. This .223-acre traffic triangle was named for Wetzel by Local Law 17 of 1977. Triangular intersections that were too small to be developed were designated as public plazas, including this one. The park contains small hedges, trees, and a memorial flagpole honoring Wetzel and other local veterans.

References

{{coord, 40.663469, -73.835467, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Parks in Queens, New York Squares in Queens, New York Vietnam War monuments and memorials in the United States Howard Beach, Queens

See also

References