VFW Robert F. Garrison Post #3350 celebrated its 75th Diamond Jublilee anniversary on Sept. 25 with dozens of veterans, officials, friends and family in attendance. Many state, town, county and village officials presented citations and offered congratulations to the posts’ members.
The post was installed on July 18, 1935 at the East Rockaway Fire House on Main Street and was named after a local World War I casualty, Private Robert F. Garrison, U.S. Army, who was killed in France in November 1918. Garrison had attended the local public schools and was 19 years old at the time of his death. The Post (briefly named the Major General Tasker H. Bliss Post) initially met in the East Rockaway municipal building prior the donation of the present location at 164 Main Street by Garrison’s mother. She gave the building in memory of her son so that veterans of the Great War would have a club house to gather.
A 1935 newspaper article (see photo) announcing the new post shows the gentlemen posing for the local paper. Current members are asking if any relatives of the gentlemen in the photo at left would get in touch with the post, members would like to welcome them as their guests. They can be reached at (516) 887-8170.
