Rockaway Honors Its Veterans

By Katie McFadden

On Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, the Daniel M. O’Connell Post 272 of the American Legion brought the community together to honor those who have served this country and the NYPD 100th Precinct celebrated our veterans with a special breakfast gathering.

On the blistery Tuesday morning, as a few snowflakes fell, a small crowd gathered at the Doughboy Monument on Beach 94th Street, where members of the American Legion, including U.S. Navy veteran Mike Honan, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jim Hurley and Theresa Trainor of the American Legion Auxiliary unit led prayers and speeches. They honored all of those who have served in the U.S. armed forces, living and deceased, acknowledged the 250th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps the day before, and the recent passing of another hero, firefighter Patrick Brady.

Due to the cold, the ceremony was kept short, but NYPD Detective Victor Boamah invited all to the 100th Precinct’s Veterans Day breakfast to warm up and grab a bite. The 100th Precinct’s event was made possible by the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association, NAACP (Far Rockaway Branch), and House On The Rock Church, who all provided food and goodie bags for the veterans, while 100th Precinct officers and members of the Explorer’s youth program helped serve food.

Among those in attendance was U.S. Army veteran Winston Ali. Ali explained that he enlisted just two months after immigrating to New York from Trinidad. “I came to New York in May 1975. My brother lived here and sponsored my family. New York was going through a bad recession in 1975 and I said I cannot sit around and wait for a job, so I started going out all over Rockaway and Brooklyn and one day I walked from Kings Plaza to the Junction at Flatbush and Broadway, crisscrossing the street, asking anyone if they were hiring, and then I saw the recruiting station there and thought, what is this all about?” he shared. Next thing he knew, Ali was asking his mom permission and on June 18, 1975, he was officially sworn into the Army, dedicating his service to his new country. Ali trained at Fort Dix as a medic and spent some time in Washington for about two years before requesting to go overseas to Germany, where he served for a year, before getting out to help his family back home. “I loved it. It was a really good experience. My only regret is not staying longer,” Ali said.

Also in attendance was James Divilly, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, having served from 1961-1966, who later on joined the U.S. Army National Guard, serving until 2001. Divilly shared that he went everywhere from Parris Island to Camp Lejeune and Beaufort in the Carolinas to California and Hawaii to Okinawa and Quantico. Divilly shared that at the time when the draft was happening, he decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps and join the Marine Corps. Later, after working a career with the Tunnel Authority, he joined the National Guard to make some extra change and learned things had also changed. “In the guard, they were teaching us about rifles and told us it changed a lot from when I last served. They used to be 12 inches and now they’re 18 inches. I kept on learning,” Divilly said, adding that it was his first time at the 100th Precinct’s event, after attending the American Legion’s ceremony.

Russell Hauk, who served with the U.S. Army Reserve from 1969 to 1974, also said the draft motivated him to enlist instead. “With the draft coming, I figured I might as well go where I had a choice. If you got drafted, they took you wherever,” he said. But Hauk proudly comes from a family of military members from those who served in the Civil War, to WWII, Vietnam and the Korean War, with some family members killed on duty.

Hauk’s service kept him relatively local, going to basic training at Fort Knox, learning about finance at Fort Benjamin in Indiana, to Fort Drum upstate and Fort Monmouth in NJ. Hauk shared that some of those places no longer exist or have been repurposed as parks. “The good thing is now most of those forts are closed because there’s no war. It’s great we’re not at war now,” Hauk said. He also acknowledged that with fewer youth involved in the military, most only learn about the service through those who have served, like the youth serving the veterans food on Tuesday. “It’s great to see people honoring veterans. A lot of young people don’t remember because they weren’t around for Vietnam and the younger ones weren’t around for the smaller wars like in Afghanistan, and not many people are in the military, especially from NY and NJ because there are good jobs here, so it’s a good thing they have these Explorers here so they can get experience with people who were in the military,” he said of the 100th Precinct’s event. Looking back on his own service, Hauk said, “It was a good thing I went. I got to know a lot of people. Basic training was tough but after that it was fun.”

After the event, the 100th Precinct shared, “Today and every day, we honor and express our gratitude to our veterans for their unwavering dedication and commitment to keeping our country and communities safe.”