Hats off to our WWII vets: Special ceremony on August 28

BY JERRY DONNELLAN

Veterans Service Agency of Rockland County

As a kid in Nyack right after WWII, we used to watch the Memorial Day parades go by.  Right up in front were the WWII veterans in their 20s and full of pride in crisp, new uniforms. In the next echelon were the WWI vets not quite as snappy and starting to develop a paunch, but still pretty sharp for pushing 50.  Further back in a borrowed convertible were the Spanish-American War veterans.

Then maybe another car were the Civil War veterans. That may just be my kid’s imagination playing tricks on me in these senior years, but I can remember thinking to see if I could talk to those guys – They may have known Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt and what great piece of history. But like any kid having the attention span of a gnat, I certainly moved on to hot dogs and Cokes and other things of major importance. I just think now of all the first hand history I missed.

Now as they say, the parade has passed by and now those young 20-something veterans are going to be honored by the County on the 71stAnniversary of their War. So if you can help us reach out to our WWII vets and ask them to please be in touch with us, we’d like to be able to honor them as well.

We will be holding the Ceremony at the Clarkstown Town Hall, August 28 at 1 p.m.  It will give us the opportunity to say thank you.

Also, if you have the time perhaps you could stop by and maybe bring the kids – Then maybe they can talk to somebody who may have spoken to another Roosevelt.

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