Rockville Centre honors veterans at annual ceremony 100 years after World War I

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“Thinking of the heroes who join us here today and those who are here only in spirit, a person can’t help but feel awed,” Rockville Centre Mayor Francis X. Murray told dozens of residents, community leaders and former service members during the village’s Veterans Day ceremony last Sunday. “We stand in the midst of patriots and the family and friends of those who have nobly served.”

Among those scattered around the gym of the John A. Anderson Recreation Center was former Mayor Eugene Murray, 93, who served in the Army as a sergeant during World War II. “Thank you, Dad,” Francis said.

“From defeating communism, fascism, imperialism and liberating slaves, keeping the peace during the Cold War and battling terror today, veterans have accomplished remarkable things throughout our nation’s history,” said Frank Colon, commander of Rockville Centre’s American Legion Post 303.

The ceremony was special, Colon noted, as it marked the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I. “It was a conflict so bloody and horrific that many optimists referred to it as the war to end all wars. It was sadly not.”

Among others at the ceremony was Rockville Centre police sergeant Dan Brandi, who did three tours in Korea, totaling 27 months, while in the U.S. Navy. He was involved in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea from Nov. 27 to Dec. 14, 1950. Chinese troops had surrounded United Nations forces, which broke out of the encirclement and made their way to the port of Hungnam, inflicting heavy casualties on the Chinese. Brandi, 88, was a gunner’s mate on a cruiser who helped the U.S. Marines during the battle. He and other members who fought at the Chosin Reservoir were later honored with the nickname “the Chosin Few.”

“In Korea, we’ve got a lot of people over there,” Brandi said of the dead soldiers who died there and were buried in trenches. He mentioned Korean War veteran Walter Fred Strohm, of Rockville Centre, who he said is still missing in action. Strohm’s name is on a plaque outside the recreation center. “Every day, I go over and say a prayer for him,” Brandi said.

Members of the St. Agnes choir started the ceremony by singing the national anthem, and the crowd joined them in ending it with “God Bless America.”

Also at the event was Elizabeth Boylan, a Rockville Centre resident with a family of military veterans. Her grandfather, Dominick Stabile, received a Purple Heart from a wound he received on Oct. 16, 1918 during the Battles of the Meuse-Argonne in France. “He was gassed and he was pulled out of the trench,” Boylan said.

The conflict involved 1.2 million American soldiers and was one of a series of Allied attacks known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which helped end World War I.

Boylan’s father, Joseph Stabile, and her uncle fought in World War II. Her father-in-law, James Boylan, was a commander in the Navy for 10 years and her husband, Chris, is a retired U.S. Navy captain.

Serving in the Navy from 1980 to 2007, Chris said Veterans Day is a time to recognize the service of both deceased and active members. “It’s service to your country, your community, your family,” he said. “Somebody has to go out and do it, because as a country, we don’t exist [without them].”