The names of some of the 56 New Hyde Park residents who lost their lives in two world wars, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were read in front of New Hyde Park Village Hall as residents stood silently in the falling rain last Saturday morning.
The brief outdoor ceremony, which was held to honor those who died in combat for their country, was the climax of a rain-shortened Memorial Day parade that moved along Jericho Turnpike from Hillside Boulevard to Village Hall.
“Let’s not forget why we are here, to remember our war dead,” said New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro.
Members of the New Hyde Park Fire Department and the fire department band marched through the rain on Saturday to honor the fallen. So did members of Boy Scout Troop 544 and Cub Scout Pack 544, both affiliated with Notre Dame Church and Boy Scout Troop 298 and Cub Scout Pack 489, based at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.
The long, sodden march to Village Hall and the solemn ceremony that followed gave those present occasion to think about the sacrifices they were there to commemorate.
“When they read the names of the young people, it really gives you a sense of what it was they gave up,” said Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello.
A wreath was set in front of the war memorial on the Village Hall lawn and members of G.&E. Linder VFW Post 8031 and American Legion Post 1089 fired a three-volley salute to the dead. The village’s observance concluded with Marilyn Obertis playing taps.
Her husband, Korean War veteran Mario Obertis, said he was remembering his boyhood friend, Gilbert Keogh, who died fighting in Korea when he was 19 years old.
“I figured here I am so many year after the Korean War and he never had a chance to live a life. It makes me wonder why these things happen,” Obertis said.
Obertis, who served in the U.S. Air Force, said he was also thinking of his uncle, Frank Santoriello, a father figure to Obertis who had served in the U.S. Army during World War II and died of a heart attack at age 57.
John McGuire, American Legion Post commander, said he was thinking about his uncle, after whom he was named, who was a tail gunner in a B-24 bomber that crashed in France in 1944. His uncle’s remains were eventually found and identified through DNA testing when the wreckage of the plane was discovered in 1996.
“No one in his knew what happened to him,” McGuire said.
McGuire said a high school friend, Peter Russell, was also on his mind. Russell was a helicopter pilot whose gunship went down in the first mission he flew in Vietnam in 1968. And although the wreckage of the copter was found, his remains were never located and he officially remains among those missing from that war.
“He was one of the 2,000 men who never came home,” McGuire said.
New Hyde Park resident Mary Ann O’Grady was at the ceremony to honor the memory of her cousin, Col. John O’Grady, a pilot shot down during the Vietnam War. He was classified as missing in action for 40 years before the U.S. Air Force declared him killed in action.
O’Grady said she thought he was probably killed after his plane went down, “but we don’t know for sure.”
He was 34 years old when he died, she said, leaving a wife and seven children.
“For a long time I believed he was alive,” she said quietly, adding, “I’m very sad about it.”
Trudy Vetri, a 53-year New Hyde Park resident, said she was remembering a neighbor, Donald Vallers, who she knew during his boyhood and as his substitute teacher at the Holy Spirit School. Vallers also died in Vietnam.
“He was due to come home after two years and he re-upped,” she said.
Two days after he signed up for another tour of duty, she said he was severely wounded and subsequently died at the age of 20 years.
“He was a role model for his contemporaries. When his buddies were drafted, he volunteered,” Vetri said.
VFW Post Commander Edward Smolenski, a World War II veteran, said he was recalling his high school friends who died in that war.
“I’m knew all the guys who passed away,” Smolenski said.
Korean War veteran Bill Hothan said, “I’m thinking of all the guys.”
