Kinsman Historical Society program to pay tribute to native son

KINSMAN

Orangeville native Brad Radcliffe, who has based his career as playwright, actor, and director in Wisconsin, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, will pay special tribute to a former comrade in arms, the late Greg Cico of Gustavus, in a program on behalf of the Kinsman Historical Society on May 18, at 7 p.m. in the Kinsman Presbyterian Church.

The public is invited and urged to attend this event, which is part of Radcliffe’s endeavor to dedicate the former Badger High School grounds as a park in memory of Cico.

In a letter to Kinsman Township trustees, Radcliffe notes that ”a number of servicemen who served in the Vietnam conflict can credit Greg Cico for the luck of being able to live a long life.”

After circulating as an outstanding student at Joseph Badger High School, Radcliffe writes, Cico enlisted in the Air Force, trained in intelligence and graduated from Vietnamese language school.

Assigned to the 6994th Security Squadron, flying out of Pleiku and Danang, Vietnam. Cico’s job was to intercept and translate enemy communication.

“As a result of his work,” Radcliffe writes, “numerous U.S. military pilots and ground troops were given ‘heads-up’ information in order to execute safe extractions. Enemy locations were pinpointed and this would allow for U.S. and South Vietnamese forces to be rescued.”

The Air Force, in acknowledgment of Cico’s bravery, awarded him The Distinguished Flying Cross and 9 Air medals with 8 Oak Leaf Clusters.

Four months after arriving home from Vietnam, he was on his way to work, driving on Route 7 south of Kinsman, when his car spun on black ice, he struck a tree and was killed instantly.

The letter ends: “This is respectfully submitted in the hope that the field where Joseph Badger High School stood, where Greg was a quiet, gentle, intelligent student be named in his honor as ‘The Gregory L. Cico Memorial Park.’

Radcliffe, a member of Joseph Badger Class of 1968, attended Youngstown State University, American University, and completed his internship at Zablocki VA Medical Center in Addiction Studies and Treatment.

He served in the Army in Vietnam 1970-1971 with the 17th Combat Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade. He was in Army Intelligence on active duty and as a civilian in Washington, D.C.

He was member of the original American Folklore Theater, Washington D.C., and for over 46 years a playwright, actor and director of the works of Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, and Arthur Miller. He has had his own plays performed by a number of theater companies, in D.C., Virginia, and Wisconsin.

His most recent work ‘Weird Flight’ about pilots in the Southeast Asian war, was performed last fall at Kohler Art Center Theater, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. While developing the script, he discovered the story of Greg Cico and his unit.

Radcliffe is an advocate in fund development for Paul Newman’s “Hole in The Wall Gang Camp’ and Newman’s Own Foundation. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife Margaret. They are the parents of two sons.