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Overcast Saluting those who served
Inwood VFW Post 1582 members celebrate Veterans Day
They fought in three different wars and in two different branches of the military, but John P. Oliveri Inwood VFW Post 1582 members John Santora, Sal Scotto and Joe Squitieri proudly served their country.
“It was the thing to do. Every young man joined after Pearl Harbor,” said Santora, 90, a World War II veteran who enlisted in the Navy and served from 1943 to 1946 on a cargo ship in the Pacific, attaining the rank of machinist mate 3rd class. “Those that couldn’t get in were disappointed.” Santora said that his education at Brooklyn Tech High School helped him in the Navy. He joined the VFW in 1950.
Though being drafted for the Korean War interrupted his life from 1951 through part of 1953, Scotto, 83, said he was glad to serve. “I was happy to go,” he said. “There are good memories and bad times.” The private first class was part of the Army’s 123rd Medical Company, stationed near Seoul, which treated soldiers who were unable to return to combat.
The Vietnam conflict divided the country, but Squitieri, 65, a lifelong Inwood resident, joined the Army in 1968. “I wanted to serve and represent my country,” he said minutes before conducting the post’s annual Veterans Day ceremony on Monday. Originally called Armistice Day, Nov. 11 celebrated the end of World War I. In 1954, Congress amended it to include a recognition of all members of the Armed Forces.
Squitieri, the post commander for the past eight years, was assigned to an Army communications unit from 1968 to 1971 and stationed in Ben Wa, Long Ben and Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, eventually becoming a sergeant E-5. “I was proud to serve,” he said.
Santora, a Far Rockaway native, came home after World War II and went to work for the Queensborough Gas & Electric Company. In 1947 he started a business, Arista Dry Cleaning, on Sheridan Boulevard in Inwood, that lasted 40 years, until his retirement in 1987.
In 1947 he also married Sarephina Vilardi. “I was in the first grade with her at P.S. 44 in Rockaway Beach,” Santora said. “She lived on 82nd Street and I lived on 85th Street.” The couple had seven children, 18 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Sarephina died in 2007.
“It’s just great to know you can come here and see people you know, but I’m very sad that it never seems war will ever end,” said Santora, a past post commander and one of several members who helped build the headquarters, which opened in 1964. Before that, the post operated out of a house on Morris Avenue in Inwood. Santora’s sister, Philomena, who died in 2008, served in the WAVES, the Navy’s women’s division, and was assigned to Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attacked it. She was also a VFW member. John also served as president of the Inwood Veterans Association, the post’s governing body.
Scotto moved from Brooklyn to Inwood in 1969, and joined the post 24 years after he left the military. “Two friends of mine induced me to join,” he said. “It’s for a sense of friendship and keeps my memories alive.”
Scotto worked in banking before he was drafted, and again after Vietnam until he retired in 1988. He and his wife, Angelina, who have been married for 55 years, have three children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Sal has twice served as post commander, and is a vice president of the Inwood Veterans Association. “I’ve met nice guys, and you find out how you have something in common,” he said.
Squitieri also met his wife, Joan, on the job, when he was a custodian at Lawrence High School and she was a school secretary. He was also the longtime driver of the Peninsula Public Library bookmobile. A member of the VFW before he was discharged, Squitieri takes immense pride in his service and post membership. “I was proud to serve,” he said, “and you get to meet people and make many friends.”
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