Vietnam Marine Veteran Inspires By Remaining Faithful

A Trailer Wrecked, A Long Trek, And Help Comes For Marine Veteran 
Hartford Courant
By CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN
Special to The Courant
July 6, 2015

Richard Kowalker with his horses at the funeral for Norman Varney June 20.

(Michael Klett/D'Esopo Funeral Home, hc)

NEWINGTON — Richard Kowalker had brought his horse to more than 700 military funerals, but this one would be particularly special.

The deceased, Norman Varney, 90, was not only a fellow Marine, but also a survivor of the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, one of the greatest battles in Marine Corps history.

As he has done at military funerals since 2006, Kowalker, 66, would honor the fallen serviceman by leading a riderless horse, an ancient symbol of a fallen warrior, at the funeral procession.

"I feel it's an honor just to be in the presence of that person," said Kowalker, referring to Varney. Kowalker is a Vietnam War combat veteran. "What they had to go through, I can only imagine. I believe there's a reason they call it the Greatest Generation."

But the day before the June 20 funeral, Kowalker faced a big problem.

His horse trailer was totaled in an accident. When he couldn't borrow a replacement, he made a decision. At about 10 p.m., Kowalker put on his Marine Corps dress uniform, saddled up two horses and began an all-night trek from Middlefield to Wethersfield, about 15 miles away.

Kowalker's vocation comes from hard and painful experience. He grew up in Newington and joined the Marines at 17. Two years later, he was sent to Vietnam. There, he served as a machine gunner at the height of the war in 1968 and 1969, fighting in places with names like Hill 55, Sherwood Forrest and Happy Valley.
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