In early 1944, Henry Drogin and his brother, Leonard, met up at a bar on Hillside Avenue before shipping out for the Pacific theatre of World War II.
It was the last time they would see each other.
Henry survived the war, but his brother, an engineer with the Army, disappeared during fierce fighting with Japanese troops on the island of Okinawa in 1945.
For nearly six decades, the Drogin family searched for information on the whereabouts of Leonard’s remains, and last year with the help of Congressman Gregory Meeks’ office their efforts finally paid off. In October 2002, they learned that, although his body was never found, Leonard has a white cross in the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
"I was rejoiced," Henry Drogin said in a recent phone interview. "I was so happy. I’ve waited a long time for this."
At 83, Henry still gets choked up when recalling the life of his "big brother," who was two years older than him and died at the age of 23. "He was the kind of guy that got along with everyone," Henry said.
Both went to Jamaica High School, and Leonard, who had a penchant for math and science, won a full-scholarship from Cooper Union. After graduating, the elder Drogin worked as an engineer for the US government in Anchorage, Alaska a job that would have kept him out of military service when war broke out in the 1940s. But Leonard wanted to fight for his country, and he left his comfortable government job to enlist in the Army, while Henry joined the Navy.
After going their separate ways, they wrote to each other consistently. Yet in mid-1945, Henry did not receive any letters from Leonard over a lengthy period of time, and his own letters, addressed to his brother, started coming back to him stamped with an ominous message "deceased" but no other information.
When the war ended, the Drogins’ search for answers began. Henry’s sister, Pearl, initiated the quest, and Henry picked it up when she died in the 1970s. His daughter, Loraine, helped him for many years.
But they found little. Without Leonard’s social security and "dog tag" numbers, the Drogins had few avenues open to them. Their best hope, a massive military archive in Maryland, was severely damaged by a fire, which destroyed records of Leonard’s military service.
About three and a half years ago, they contacted Congressman Meeks, who has had past successes in similar searches. Richard Colon, a Meeks staffer and an expert on military affairs, took on the task, contacting dozens of veterans groups across the country.
"We knew that if we worked long enough, something good would happen," Meeks told The Queens Courier after a Memorial Day service in Queens Village this week.
And, eventually, something good did happen. A group in St. Louis contacted Colon and told him about a local archive, which had information about Leonard’s death on Okinawa and his white cross in the Philippines.
On October 25, 2002, Meeks formally presented Henry Drogin with his brother’s long-deserved military medals, including the Purple Heart, during a ceremony at his Far Rockaway office.
"They stayed with it," Henry said of Meeks’ office. "And by hook or crook, they were going to get something for me."
On Memorial Day, the Drogins joined members of American Legion Post 301 on the Queens Village Veterans Plaza for a brief service beneath driving rain. A young boy played "Taps" on his bugle, while a dozen veterans, in full American Legion regalia, snapped to attention.
"May the rain remind us of the tears of sorrow that loved ones have cried for the fallen," the post’s chaplain, Philip Sica, said in a prayer.
The Drogins plan on returning to the Memorial Wall on the plaza in a few weeks, when Leonard’s name will finally be etched alongside the names of Queens Village’s other fallen soldiers.
"After so many years, it’s a relief," Henry said. "You hope and pray, and sometimes, your prayers get answered."
