Bayville’s American Legion members revive Old Glory

Everyone loves a parade, including the residents of Bayville. Every Memorial Day, when they gather for the annual parade, the route, on Bayville and Ludlum avenues, is lined with American flags. The event draws hundreds of people each year — visitors as well as residents of the seaside community. But most people may not know who organizes the event, and who takes care of all those flags.

The members of the American Legion’s Robert H. Spittel Post No. 1285 take pride in putting the parade together each year. Since 2001 they have been responsible for replacing the flags, too, which remain up from Memorial Day to Veterans Day.

This year the legion donated 27 new flags to replace old ones that are sun-bleached, wind-whipped and tattered.

“In this day and age, respect for the flag has waned,” Rich Bathie, the post’s acting commander, said. “We want to remind the community that this is our symbol of freedom for our country.”
Legion member Peter Carbone, who oversees the flag replacement, said it was easy in the past to purchase new flags, but not anymore.

“We want 100 percent nylon flags made in America, which is not easy to find, because local stores don’t usually carry them anymore,” Carbone said. “We used to get them at BJ’s.”

Another member finally found the flags online this spring, just in time for Memorial Day. But this year there was an additional challenge: The flags needed new poles as well.

“This year we found there was a problem with the pole size,” Carbone said. “It changed.”

To help the flags better withstand wind, manufacturers are making larger poles, he explained, which prompted the legion to order 27 new poles. The flags cost $75 each, and the poles, $14.

All told, the legion spent roughly $3,000.

Members arrived at Village Hall on May 14 toting the new supply. During a brief ceremony on the Village Green, they saluted one of the flags as it was presented to Mayor Steve Minicozzi.
Lauren Spampinato, 22, stood nearby, watching the ceremony, in which her father, legionnaire Ray Spampinato, took part. Lauren said she could still fondly remember joining her classmates from the Locust Valley school district on past Memorial Days for the ceremony on the green.

“They’d have us line up here and sing our song dressed in red, white and blue,” she recalled. “It was a wonderful experience.”

For legion members, the holiday events begin before the 1 p.m. parade. They gather at Bayville Cemetery to salute veterans who have died, a solemn ceremony that includes volleys from a firing squad and heads bowed in prayer.

There is a monument across the street from the cemetery, in front of the post’s headquarters that lists the names of veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice. On Memorial Day the legionnaires gather there as well.

At 12:30 p.m., they muster outside Village Hall for another brief ceremony before the parade begins.

This year’s procession will once again be fully funded by the legion. Some 25 members of the National Guard members will march, among them Alfred Staab Jr., a Bayville resident who returned from Iraq last December, at Christmastime. Dr. Anthony Bruno, an Army veteran who was stationed in Korea during the Vietnam War, will be the grand marshal.

Among the marchers will be bands, one comprising members of the Locust Valley High School Senior Band; Boy and Girl Scouts; children from St. Gertrud’s preschool; village leaders; and members of the Knights of Columbus and Rotary. Bayville Fire Department members will march, as will Bayville Little League players, among others.

The members of Post 1285 will be marching, too.

“Every year the legion organizes the parade and the flags,” Minicozzi said. “Most of them are America’s Greatest Generation, and we’re lucky to have them around. They went to fight as kids and are still involved. They love our country and Bayville. Beautiful Bayville.”