Daring service honored: Plaque for Ernest H. Greppin III set for Memorial Day

Navy SEAL Ernest H. Greppin III didn’t start as a scholar or athlete, but a late interest in rowing and service led him to success at the Naval Academy, special forces training, and a dangerous life.

Greppin was leading that life when he died during a High-Altitude, Low Open (HALO) training jump in 1991. Memorial Day begins Monday, 8:30 a.m., with the dedication of a plaque at the corner of Gay and High Streets, in his honor. The date is also his birthday. He would have turned 44.

“The guy who would be most surprised is Ernie,” said his father, Ernest Greppin Jr. Even after his late-bloomer success in life, Ernie was a quiet person, who wasn’t much for pomp and circumstance. There were stories in the Boston Globe and Dedham Transcript, now the Daily News Transcript, when he died, Greppin said, but this will be the first recognition of his service from his hometown. “When Ernie died, the military wasn’t very popular,” Greppin said.

When Westwood Postmaster Harry Aaron informed he and his wife, Barbara, about the effort to honor their son and if it would be OK with them, Greppin said, they were thrilled. “It was something we never expected,” he said, “Within a second, I said ‘yes’”.

Aaron said Town Clerk Dottie Powers mentioned the idea of a memorial plague for Ernie to him three months ago. Powers said Greppin had asked her about the process for having a plaque dedicated a few years ago. She made some inquiries at the time, she said, but nothing came of the idea until she mentioned it to Aaron.

Aaron said he was impressed to learn that Ernie was a Navy SEAL at 24. Aaron himself was a member of the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team, a precursor to the Navy SEALs, in 1959. “I picked it up and kind of ran with it,” he said.

Aaron approached selectmen, who approved the idea. He also started making calls to people asking for donations to pay for the $1,400 plaque. “That ended up being the easiest part of the project,” Aaron said. He raised the money within days, just through word of mouth.

Powers said the state Veterans Affairs department approved the honor, and Paula Scoble in the Westwood Veteran’s Services office made the order for the plaque, which will read: Lt. (JG) Ernest H. Greppin III, US Navy SEAL, Born May 25, 1967. Died July 15, 1991.
“I think it’s wonderful. It’s long overdue,” said Powers.

Chris McKeown, the town’s newly appointed Veterans Service Agent, started the job while efforts were already in the works for the dedication, but he shares the conviction that Ernie deserves the plaque. “This was guy who was apparently quite a remarkable kid,” said McKeown.

“Ernie had a slow start in this world,” Greppin said. He wasn’t a great student or stunning athlete. “He didn’t have a whole lot of friends.”

Ernie grew up in Westwood, but he attended private schools. He went to high school at St. Andrews School in Middletown, Delaware, and joined the school’s rowing crew – team, where he excelled. His team competed against the Navy, and the Navy coach asked if he wanted to row for them. “Lo and behold, he got into the Naval Academy,” Greppin said.

Though the attrition rate there is daunting, he said, Ernie graduated in the middle of his class, and told his father he intended to join the Navy SEALs. “I was flabbergasted,” Greppin said, “I said, ‘There’s a lot of danger in that’. He said that’s what he wanted to do.”

Ernie started SEAL training, where the attrition rate is 30 percent, and he made it. He was 24 years old.

The jump Ernie was making when he died, said Greppin, is the kind of thing Navy SEALs do so when they parachute into a place, they are very hard to detect. They pull their parachutes at the last possible moment. All he and Barbara know, he said, is that his parachute didn’t work, and he’s no longer with them, the first of his class to die while on active duty. They don’t have any more detail, and, Greppin said, they accept that as part of the life that Ernie chose for himself. “Ernie told me, ‘When a SEAL dies, you never know,’” Greppin said, “Sometimes, you don’t know for a reason.”

Greppin said he and Barbara are humbled by the dedication for Ernie, and don’t feel it’s something that is owed to their family. “We don’t take it for granted in any way. We are incredibly delighted and appreciative of what they’ve done,” he said.