Nick Oneppo is a Vietnam War veteran who was injured when struck by mortar flak.

That wasn’t on his mind Friday morning, rather he was concentrating on a plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon and French toast.

Nick and his wife Cathie were among veterans who were treated to a free breakfast Friday morning at Iggy’s Boardwalk at an event co-hosted by Bishop Hendricken High School and the restaurant. The breakfast for veterans has been a Hendricken tradition and up until a couple of years ago when Iggy’s joined in was held at the school.

Two sittings were held with veterans showing up before 8 a.m. and again at 10. One constant apart from Iggy’s owners David Gravino and his sister Mary Ann who circulated was Father Robert Marciano, school president and pastor of St. Kevin Church. A retired colonel in the Rhode Island Air Guard, Father Marciano serves as a chaplain for the Warwick Fire and Police departments and the RI Guard. But on Friday he wasn’t wearing vestments or a uniform, but rather a Hendricken t-shirt.

The Oneppos are not strangers to Father Marciano. Their son is a Hendricken alum and they are St. Kevin parishioners. And if some vets didn’t know Father Marciano, they surely had the chance to talk with him and exchange stories of their service.

Oneppo told his story between bites and sips of coffee.

The Vietnam War was in its early stages and Oneppo, 18, and a recent Mt. Pleasant High School grad, and some of his friends enlisted with the Rhode Island Army National Guard.

“They asked if any of us knew where Vietnam was,” Oneppo recalls. None of the new recruits could say where the country is. It was 1966. The war wasn’t front page news.

Oneppo signed up for six years and after completing training was stationed in Rhode Island. It was on weekend maneuvers with the Massachusetts National Guard that he was injured. He was using a 3.5 rocket launcher in a simulated attack when hit by shrapnel from an exploding mortar. Live ammunition was not to have been used, but after a lengthy investigation, Oneppo said the unit had strayed from their assigned area.

Oneppo described himself as lucky as two of the Massachusetts’ Guardsmen suffered far worse. He was sent to the Chelsea Naval Hospital to recover where he was for about a month. He said a parade of top brass visited him and questioned him about the mishap. His ward was full of soldiers who had been injured in Vietnam, most of them far more seriously than him.

There was one highlight to the episode, a visit from the Playboy Bunnies. One of the bunnies sat with Oneppo, autographed a copy of Playboy and gave him a kiss. Oneoppo wonders if he still has the magazine. Cathie offers no comment.

The two met sometime later and worked together in the Shepard’s Store in Midland Mall, now Rhode Island Mall. From Shepard’s he got a ground level job – he worked the tub – at Bulova Watch in Providence. The tub, as he explained it, was a giant rotating barrel that was filled with small rocks designed to smooth off the burr of small parts. Oneppo’s job was to feed water into the tub and maintain its proper operation. Oneppo’s superiors soon recognized his love of pitching in and doing the work and put him in charge of different phases of the manufacturing operation. He became a manager.

“I loved that job,” he said, but after 20 years most of Bulova operations moved overseas. Even the offices built by Bulova on Service Way in Warwick closed.

A new chapter in Oneppo’s life opened. He had bought some property and Cathie suggested he might use what he had learned from the experience to sell real estate. He pursued his license and connecting with Carl Swanson and Dianne Foley opened Real Estate One in Gateway Plaza. The trio ran the company for many years. Following Swanson’s retirement and Foley’s death, Oneppo teamed up with George Avedisian who principally operates the business now.

Cathie closed out her 31 year career in education as principal of Mt. Pleasant High School.

Reflecting on his service with the National Guard, Oneppo said, “It was probably a good thing for me.” He said his six months of training introduced more discipline and gave him direction. Looking at today’s youth and how many graduating from high school don’t know what they want to do he said, “Everybody should go it and serve.”