Tribute banners to honor fallen from WWII

This year, in a joint initiative, Ardsley Engine Company #1 and American Legion Post 458 will each sponsor six new banners honoring 12 of Ardsley’s World War II veterans. Engine Company #1 will purchase banners for Fred C. Baker, James B. Mackenzie, Thomas F. Mack Jr., George H. Hauptman Jr., David W. Longmuir, and Angelo L. Delmerico. Post 458 will sponsor banners for Kenneth D. Wood, Gordon B. Kreutz, Howard R. Secor, Daniel R. Geis, Edward J. Lynn Jr., and Robert L. Kakerbeck. All but Kakerbeck were Ardsley High School graduates; his school years were divided between Ardsley and Elmsford.

Though he had no personal connection to them, Maurice Hyacinthe of HMH Management, which owns Ardsley’s Village Green shopping center, purchased banners for World War II veterans Robert E. Bunch Jr. and Charles E. Duryea in 2022.

None of the 14 men returned to Ardsley; their names are engraved on the Roll of Honor boardin Louis Pascone Memorial Park. Delmerico and Bunch, whose father was mayor of Ardsley from 1951-53, had been awarded Purple Hearts.

Locating the families of the “14 Fallen,” as the veterans are being called, was no easy task for Ardsley program organizer Sharon Colabello, who sponsored a banner last year in honor of her father, Marty Engleman. “We were trying to actively find those other 12 who no longer have family in the area,” she said on May 12.

Colabello, 67, enlisted the help of Post 458 commander Efrain Hernandez, former commander Steve Wittenberg (now a Delaware resident), and Facebook.

She emphasized that all veterans could have a banner, and has had requests on behalf of Vietnam, Cold War, and Gulf War vets. The program also is open to active-duty military personnel.

The annual sale of remembrance poppies in front of DeCicco & Sons, this year on Saturday, May 20, will raise funds to defray the Legion’s costs for its banners.

The deadline for ordering a banner is July 31. The process requires registration, photo submission, and approvals from the national program. The banner will show the honoree’s name, branch, rank, dates of service, and up to two of the veteran’s honors. Checks payable to American Legion Post #458 should be mailed to P.O. Box 530, Ardsley, NY 10502. Sponsors are asked to write in the memo line of their checks: ardsleymilitarybanners2022@gmail.com.For additional information, contact Sharon Colabello at the same email address. She will assist those who don’t have computers.

Though Colabello, now a Mahopac resident, is the sole organizer, she calls her operation “a well-oiled machine,” crediting the American Legion and Village of Ardsley for their support, and noting the public works department’s hard work putting up, taking down, packaging, and storing last year’s banners — a process they’ll repeat this year with even more banners. Last year’s banners extended along Ashford Avenue and Saw Mill River Road (Route 9A).

“My goal is that we do another 59,” Colabello stated.

Ardsley is the first Rivertown to participate in the banners program, and Colabello is now recruiting other villages. “I’ve been invited to the Rivertowns Rotary to talk about it, because they wanted to see how they could get the other Rivertowns involved,” she said. She has also spoken to elected officials in Hastings and Tarrytown, and to veterans in Irvington.“They’re all interested,” she affirmed. “It’s just getting through the logistics and finding a team to take on the project.”

Colabello had a revelation last year as her mission ended. “It had been wonderful, and I was getting not a little — a lot — melancholy as November was coming and these banners would be coming down. But then I just realized that this is ongoing, and I’m thrilled that this is a forever job for me.”

“I want these other towns to participate because I want to see these banners go from Ashford Avenue, through Dobbs Ferry, to River’s Edge[apartment complex in Yonkers] and then on Route 9/Broadway, through… Sleepy Hollow,” she declared. “I want them to go as far south as New York City and as far north as Albany!”