Names to be added to World War II monument

It’s vital for WWII soldiers to be remembered, vets say

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The Glen Cove City Council voted unanimously during its Feb. 11 meeting to authorize the addition of 17 more names to the Landing World War II Monument at Morgan Park. It should cost roughly $2,500.

The granite monument, unveiled in November 2018, currently has the names of 335 WWII veterans from the Glen Cove area etched onto its front. Since the names are arranged alphabetically, the new names will be on the rear of the monument, facing the walkway leading up to it, said Ben Farnan, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 347 in Glen Cove,.

Farnan, who spearheaded the monument project two years ago, said he knew at the time that there were likely some veterans left off, as most were made known to the VFW by those veterans’ family members. As word of the monument spread, he said other families reached out, requesting that their ancestors be honored as well.

After their identities were confirmed by the monument committee, the names of those 17 men were set to be added. Farnan said he now believes at least 90 percent of Glen Cove’s World War II veterans have been memorialized, something which he said is very important to him.

“When you have people in the threshold in their life who went down to volunteer,” he said, “those are people that I honestly believe should be recognized.”

Fred Nielsen, a leader in the North Shore’s veteran community, said families often don’t know how to make it known that their loved ones served in the military. This monument, which he said is almost like a living document in its ability to be changed, is the perfect way for loved ones to honor those who fought to maintain the country’s liberty.

“It is a very easy thing to take our freedoms and the people whose service guaranteed those freedoms as the way things are and we don’t question them beyond it,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen also said this willingness to update the monument is a prime example of how much the North Shore community and Glen Cove’s city administration cares for its veterans.

“It helps explain why Glen Cove and the general environment around the North Shore is so dynamic,” he said. “It’s an appropriate indication of how healthy the environment is. We have indications of a healthy patriotic environment, and that’s what the city’s proactivity means.”

Tony Jimenez, director of the Glen Cove Veterans Services, said the celebration of these individual soldiers is by name paramount in maintaining their legacy.

“Veterans are pretty much what made our city and made our country,” he said. “Broad acceptance is great but individual acceptance and acclamation of a ‘thank you’ is so important and it keeps Glen Cove as a small town community that takes care of their own.”

“We’re not just numbers fighting for our country,” the Vietnam veteran, added. “We’re also individuals and we want to have ourselves recognized.”

As significant as all veteran sacrifices are to the city and the country as a whole, local veterans said that World War II veterans hold a special place in United States history. They were so emboldened by the imminent threat the world faced from the Axis Powers that hundreds of thousands rushed to enlist. With so many people volunteering, Jimenez said the military was overwhelmed with soldiers following the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Jimenez said his father Philip enlisted in the Navy almost immediately when he turned 17, which was shortly after WWII broke out. He said he takes pride in knowing that his father was willing to quit school to fight for his country, something which he said he hopes those who have their family members memorialized in the Morgan Park monument feel as well.

“They created a nation,” Nielsen said. “They went to war [and] did the impossible. Nobody believed that we as a collective group of members of the Allies could topple the juggernaut of the Nazis and yet that’s exactly what we did.”

Farnan said there is no set date for the names to be added to the monument, although he expects the work to begin as the weather warms up this spring.