In the bright, hot sunshine of Memorial Day ceremonies at New Hyde Park Village Hall on Saturday, Edward Smolenski, commander of G. & E. Linder VFW Post 8031, concluded the solemn observance with a simple request: “Let not time diminish the meaning of their sacrifice.”
The sacrifices Smolenski referred to were represented by the names engraved in bronze on the four sides of the village’s monument to its war dead from World War I, World War II, Korea and the Vietnam War.
At Saturday’s cerermonies, a wreath was placed in front of the monument and an honor guard of seven riflemen fired three volleys to honor the men.
The American Legion and VFW color guard, honor guard and honored guests stepped back into the line of march. The Francis Lewis High School ROTC Drum Corps, looking sharp in uniforms capped by blue berets, resumed its equally sharp rhythm of staccato snares and bass drums.
The Manor Oaks/Hillside Grade Band and the Lyndenhurst Brass Band, a group sponsored by the New Hyde Park Fire Department, also provided a musical accompaniment for the marchers.
Grand Marshal Bob O’Hara, a U.S. Navy veteran, waved from his car. Members of the New Hyde Park Knights of Columbus, Sons of Italy Cellini Ledge, Kiwanis, Lions and the Greater New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce were also in the line of march. New Hyde Park Boy Scout Troops from Holy Spirit and Notre Dame Churches and New Hyde Park Girl Scouts marched along with a local brownie pack, a cub scout pack and little leaguers.
The parade route was lined with people around the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and New Hyde Park Road, and onlookers cheered the marchers along New Hyde Park Road. The marchers ultimately turned west into New Hyde Park Memorial Park for a second observance.
“We’re thankful for the opportunity to gather together for the express purpose of remembering,” said Dan Olson, chaplain of the New Hyde Park Fire Department.
Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Daniel Petruccio, recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah, saying “When I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’. And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me’.”
Then Petruccio commented on the true meaning behind the names engraved on war memorials.
Quoting the ancient Athenian general Pericles, he said, “What you leave behind is not engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven in the lives of theirs.”
O’Hara and Smolenski placed a wreath at the war memorial, echoing the origin of the occasion as Decoration Day in 1868. Commemorative days had been held in southern cities, where graves of fallen Civil War dead were decorated with flags. Then Decoration Day was established, with New York the first state to observe the day to remember the war dead.
O’Hara served as part of the sea war in the Pacific.
Asked if he was remembering anyone in particular, O’Hara said, “All the war dead.”
Mario Obertis, senior vice commander of Post 8031 and parade chairman, said he remembered his uncle who became a father to him after serving in Europe during World War II.
“He raised me, so I think of him a lot,” Obertis said.
Obertis, who served in the U.S. Air Force in Germany during the Korean War, said he also remembered a close friend who had died in Korea.
Gilbert Keough, a kid he’d grown up with in Hollis, Queens, had joined the U.S. Marines and was killed in Korea at age 19.
