Manhasset remembers Memorial Day with annual parade, new ceremony

Amelia Camurati
The New York Police Department's Emerald Society marched Monday in the American Legion Post 304 Memorial Day parade on Plandome Road in Manhasset. (Photo by Amelia Camurati)

Hundreds of people lined Plandome Road in Manhasset on Monday morning, waving small American flags as veterans marched in memory of their fallen brothers and sisters alongside bagpipers, marching bands and children.

Manhasset’s annual Memorial Day parade was filled with veterans and their families. (Photo by Amelia Camurati)

Manhasset’s American Legion Post 304 continued the tradition with the parade, which has been running since World War II in honor of the 82 Manhasset men and women who went to battle for the United States and never returned home.

Post Commander Peter J. Killian said he wanted to thank residents for participating in and enjoying the parade but wanted to especially acknowledge “a group that nobody wants to join — but has given so much to their country — the Gold Star families.”

“We observe Memorial Day once a year, [but] these families remember their fallen loved ones every day,” Killian said. “Children without parents, Gold Star mothers and fathers, spouses and siblings — they can still hear the voices of those they lost. It is up to us to now hear the voices of these families, offer our support and express our highest gratitude.”

Killian led the parade, which included four floats from longtime Manhasset resident Brian Kenny, three honoring the late soldiers from the area and one honoring Manhasset-Lakeville firefighters.

The Village of Munsey Park held their inaugural Memorial Day ceremony at Waldmann Memorial Park. (Photo by Amelia Camurati)

For the first time, the Village of Munsey Park honored  fallen soldiers with a small ceremony before the parade at Waldmann Memorial Park, named for George Raymond Waldmann, who died Jan. 13, 1943, during a Naval training exercise in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was stationed.

Waldmann endeavored to enlist the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Munsey Park resident Greg LiCalzi said.

George Raymond Waldmann was 23 years old when he died during a U.S. Navy training mission in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo courtesy of Greg LiCalzi)

LiCalzi, a newcomer to the village, said he wanted to honor Waldmann possibly for the first time since the park was named after him in 1946.

LiCalzi lost his brother, First Lt. Mike LiCalzi of Garden City, in 2006 in Iraq.

LiCalzi also founded a nonprofit organization in 2008, Ace in the Hole Foundation, named for the slogan of the Second Tank Battalion of the Marine Corps that his brother served with.

“He really was a true Renaissance man, and his life paralleled that of guys like my brother or Jimmy Regan,” LiCalzi said of Waldmann. “He went to Yale and got a good job, but Pearl Harbor came and changed the lives of Waldmann and many others.”

The park’s flagpole also honors seven men who died during combat: Warren Harvey, Kent Fay, Emmett Corrigan Jr., William B. Simmons Jr., Thomas Brown Dowd, James J. Regan and Robert T. Munday.

Greg LiCalzi, his wife Kimberly and their two children remember George R. Waldmann and Mike LiCalzi during the Munsey Park ceremony. (Photo by Amelia Camurati)

Affectionately known as Jimmy, Regan was killed in the line of duty in northern Iraq in February 2007 after four tours, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star medal, the Meritorious Service medal and the Purple Heart.

Regan was also memorialized in November when a portion of Port Washington Boulevard was named in his honor near his childhood home in Munsey Park.

Mayor Frank DeMento said during the ceremony those who have given their lives to serve their country are truly heroes and welcomed the opportunity to honor those from Munsey Park who have made that ultimate sacrifice.

“It doesn’t matter how much time has passed,” DeMento said. “No words of condolence can ever begin to adequately console survivors’ grief. While grief from loss may change throughout the years, it never leaves us.

“On every last Monday in May, we find ourselves reflecting on these men and women who so bravely risk life and limb in the face of grave danger. We remember those who left the comforts of home to fight for us and our freedom but never returned.”

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