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Mostly Cloudy Inwood post marks Veterans Day
Military service is solemnly celebrated
Fifteen members of PFC. John J. Oliveri VFW Post 1582 marked Veterans Day with a brief and solemn ceremony at the memorial outside their headquarters on Doughty Boulevard in Inwood on Thursday.
Veterans Day, which at one time was called Armistice Day, notes the 11th minute, of the 11th hour, of the 11th of the 11th month, when Word War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918.
It was under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who commanded the Allied forces during W.W. II, when the legislation was amended and changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day.
Post members first gathered in their upstairs meeting area on Thursday morning drinking coffee and eating bagels as a movie about W.W. II ran on the television.
Former soldiers representing nearly every branch of the military collected by the memorial under bright sunshine as Post Commander Joe Squitieri and member Louis DePalma read remarks about the meaning of the day.
Post 1582 is named for Oliveri, who was the first Inwood resident to be killed in W.W. II. He is buried in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Carthage, Tunisia.
