Sad, Sad News

I left Smithtown, Long Island, in 1967 when I to college. Smithtown is a pretty quiet burg so it is rare that I see anything in the news from there. Today I was surprised and not happy at all to see this. From the NY Post:

A Purple Heart recipient survived a deadly suicide attack in Afghanistan, only to perish today in a violent car crash at his own birthday party in Long Island, officials said.

Smithtown resident Seamus Byrne, 33, had been celebrating his big day with friends at Napper Tandy’s Irish Pub and was walking home at 1:45 a.m. when he was hit.

Byrne, who lived just a half-mile away from the pub, was in the cross walk headed home but realizing he had forgotten to say good night to one well-wisher, according to father-in-law James Gallagher.

When Byrne turned back, that’s when a 1998 Honda driven by Michael Armentano, 24, also of Smithtown, plowed into the vet, cops said.


Armentano has no priors and was not impaired, officials said. Cops are still investigating, but have so far ruled the tragic crash as an accident.

“He was just a really good guy, full if vigor and he loved his family,” Gallagher said of his fallen son-in-law. “It’s a tragedy.”

Byrne, a member of the Army National Guard’s Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment, was deployed to Afghanistan in January, 2008, his family said.

He was in a Humvee when a suicide bomber attacked nearby, killing nine and severely injuring Byrne.

Read more here.