04/08/2024
Today we recognize and pay tribute to Sgt Robert Hendriks. for his sacrifice while serving during Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. April 8, 2019, at the age of 25, Hendriks was killed in bombing in Parwan province, Afghanistan.
Robert A. Hendriks, a Long Island native, was born on March 4th, 1994, in the town of Glen Cove. He then moved with his family to Locust Valley at the age of two. As a boy, Robert would play “Army” with his younger brother Joseph and their friends. According to his mother, Felicia Arculeo, “Robert had his head on his shoulders and always did the right thing. He had a lot of friends, even though he wasn’t a jock or a Science Olympiad. Robby was a normal all-around boy.” Robert’s family are no stranger to military service, having an uncle, a cousin, and a great grandfather who were all combat veterans.
Robert attended Locust Valley High School. He trained in boxing, martial arts, and had affection for tattoos. When he was a senior, he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve. He graduated in 2012 and went to work with the Local 731 Laborers Union. In 2018, then a shop steward for Local 731, he rose to the opportunity to serve overseas in Afghanistan, where he was a turret gunner perched atop an armored, mine-resistant vehicle. He was assigned to the U.S Marines 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines Reserve Infantry Battalion.
Robert’s younger brother Joseph is a fellow Marine who found out about his sibling’s death on his first night in Afghanistan. Joseph later accompanied his brother’s coffin back to the United States.
In April of 2021, Nassau County Legislator Joshua Lafazan spearheaded a campaign to have a stretch of Forest Avenue between Birch Hill Road and Birch Street in Locust Valley renamed Robert A. Hendriks Way.
On April 24, 2019, Robert was laid to rest at Calverton National Cemetery in section 66, grave 2945. You can leave a tribute to Sgt Hendriks by visiting his page on the Veterans Legacy Memorial site at: https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/ROBERTAHENDRIKS/35396F8