Mets honor local Bayside reserve unit

Here’s a question that could stump even the most dedicated baseball trivia buff. What do Met players Tug McGraw, Nolan Ryan, Bud Harrelson, Wayne Garrett, Ken Boswell and Danny Frisella have in common?
The answer is that all of them were U.S. Army reservists, who did their drills with the 77th Regional Readiness Command (RRC) at Fort Totten in Bayside.
The New York Mets designated this September 13 as “Military Appreciation Day” at Shea Stadium, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the U.S. Army Reserve and to honor the reservist soldiers of the 77th RRC (and its forerunner units).
Major General William Terpeluk and a detachment of about 100 troops marched out on the sidelines of Shea, to receive the cheers of the crowd and salute their color guard in the outfield.
There is justification for choosing a day close to 9/11. The 77th was one of the first units to respond after the attacks. Many of its soldiers reported for duty in the days following the attack without having been called up, according to Terpeluk.
“We were the first U.S. military unit to take casualties in the war against terror,” he said.
It turns out that one lawyer who worked in the World Trade Center and five New York City firefighters who perished in the attacks were also soldiers in the 77th.
In the months following the attacks, their comrades provided mortuary units, tents, construction equipment, medical services and trucks to aid in the recovery operations.
The occasion was bittersweet for another reason.
After 91 years of service to the nation, its soldiers first earning fame in World War I as “The Lost Battalion,” the 77th was officially deactivated on September 7, at a “Casing the Colors” ceremony in Yaphank, Long Island, where the division was first assembled.
But on that night, the troops marched one more time under their Statue of Liberty banner, before their individual units went under separate commands from Fort Dix, New Jersey to as far away as New Orleans.