Navy veteran named parade’s grand marshal

Baldwin’s Memorial Day Parade will step off at 9:55 a.m. on Monday and, like every year, it will feature veterans, school bands, children and fire trucks. But the parade will also have a familiar face leading the way.

Michael Miller, a Navy veteran, has been chosen as this year’s grand marshal. Miller, 89, served as a rear combat crewman in the Navy Air Corps from 1942 to 1946, stationed in the Pacific Ocean, where he patrolled for Japanese submarines.

He and his wife of 66 years, Ann, moved to Baldwin in 1958, where they raised two daughters. Miller has been a member of American Legion Post 246 for 56 years, and served as post commander in 1961-62. He was also commander of the Nassau County American Legion in 1971-72; commander of the 10th District, which encompasses all American Legions in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties, in 1983; and New York state’s American Legion vice commander in 1993.

Two months ago, Miller received word that he would be the parade’s grand marshal. Steve Bohn, the event’s coordinator and third vice president of Post 246, said that Miller was deserving of the recognition. Miller accepted immediately, and said he is looking forward to Monday. “It will be an honor to do it,” he said.

He attends Baldwin’s parade each year, and looks forward to waving to his many friends in the community.

Miller grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens, and always wanted to be a Navy pilot. “I told my mother one night [that] when I was old enough, I was going to join the Navy Air Corps,” he recalled.

His brother Frank also served in the Navy during World War II, but his younger brother, Joe, wasn’t old enough.

Miller, who retired from his job as a meat supervisor for Key Food in 1988, has 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

He said that Memorial Day is an important holiday for him and his fellow veterans. “It’s a day we stop to memorialize our comrades who were killed,” he said.

Calliope making Baldwin debut
Jim Koehler, a 1971 Baldwin High School graduate, is bringing his 44-key pneumatic calliope to the Memorial Day Parade for the first time. The Freeport resident, who will be playing the instrument during the parade, said that, at its loudest setting, it can be heard a half-mile away.

The calliope will be towed by a customized 1954 Ford C-600 dump truck. Bohn said that seeing the calliope in action is one of the things he’s most looking forward to.