Village plans special Veterans Day display

Valley Stream’s Veterans Day ceremony will include a special homage to the village’s wartime history: a display of documents and photographs related to a visit from the French government after World War I in gratitude to local soldiers who fought on a battlefield in France.

Village officials don’t know much about the story behind the series of letters and newspaper clippings chronicling the visit. What is known is that it was in thanks for participation in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September 1918, in which the 550,000 men of the American Expeditionary Forces, the United States Army Air Service and 110,000 French troops attacked German lines with the goal of capturing the city of Metz, in northeastern France. The attack was effective, but fell short of breaking the Germans’ defenses. The Allies suffered 7,000 casualties to the Germans’ 22,500.

After the war, French officials met with members of the Sons of the American Legion in Valley Stream and presented them with soil and stones from the battlefield. The evidence of the visit came to the village through a former resident who moved to Shelter Island and happened to meet a man in Greenport who shared a Valley Stream connection. The man said he was cleaning out his home and had some items related to village history that he said he would pass along. Weeks later, Assistant to the Mayor Barbara DeGrace received a thick envelope in the mail that contained the materials related to the visit.

“We’re missing information about why officials from France formed this relationship with people in Valley Stream,” DeGrace said, noting that the Valley Stream American Legion’s building had a fire in the 1970s and may have lost records that could have filled the story in. “There’s a little bit of detective work going on.”

The materials will be available for viewing in the Community Center after the 1 p.m. ceremony on Nov. 11, which will take place adjacent to the center. The ceremony will also feature a special presentation by the students from the Valley Stream Central High School District’s performing arts program.