NST’s Annual Salute
to Veterans Returns
The event drew a capacity crowd Debra Markell-Kleinert presents Citation of Honor to Fred Chernow
BY JILL DAVIS
Whether this year’s Salute to
Veterans at North Shore Towers
was officially the 17th or 18th annu-al
tribute is somewhat debatable.
Last year’s salute would have been
the 17th, but it was a remote event
that aired on in-house Channel
995. Happily, the salute returned
to its traditional venue this year at
Towers on the Green on Thursday,
November 11.
The program, which was once
again organized and emceed
by Board Vice President Fred
Chernow, took place in a full house
filled with veterans who live at the
Towers along with their families,
neighbors and friends.
Fred opened the evening with
a brief history of the American
Legion, explaining that after
WW I, veterans' groups around
the country formed one national
organization that had a leading
role in later years in passing such
initiatives as the GI Bill. “Many
of us, including myself, benefited
from this,” Fred said. He then
introduced Sebastian D’Agostino,
the Commander of Post 103, Little
Neck/Douglaston. “Today is a day
we must all remember,” he said, and
then led the attendees in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Fred introduced Debra
Markell-Kleinert, who is the State
Committeewoman for the 26th
Assembly District. “Thank you to
all our veterans and all the people
who serve our great city every day.
Freedom isn’t free and all our vet-erans
need to be remembered every
day,” she said. She then presented a
Citation of Honor to North Shore
Towers from the office of Queens
Borough President Donovan
Richards. The citation read in part,
“Thanks to all of our veterans and
North Shore Towers, an outstand-ing
institution.”
Fred then called out Sy Kaplan.
“When you came in tonight you
received a complimentary excerpt
from his book, ‘World War II
Remembered,’ which Sy generously
had printed at his own expense,”
Fred said. He continued, “Sy’s
book personifies the slogan, ‘We
are the land of the free because of
the brave.’ Thank you, Sy.”
Fred introduced singers Russell
Targove and Mike Jones, who were
back to entertain the audience
after a two-year hiatus. Everyone
clapped along to their rendition
of “Stand By Me” and Mike asked
the veterans to stand for their ded-ication
of “America the Beautiful.”
Russell said, “We’re so grateful to
be here and that we can all finally
be together again.”
Board member Theresa Oropallo
was introduced to salute the women
in the armed forces. “I’m not a vet-eran,
but I come to this every year,”
she said. “American women played
a significant role in WWII both at
home working as civilians working,
but nearly 350,000 American wom-en
served in uniform…yet women
veterans encountered roadblocks
after serving,” Theresa continued,
explaining that women veterans
could not take advantage of the
GI Bill. “The nation was not ready
for greater gender equality,” she
said. She then introduced a short
film about Ruth Miller, a Second
Lieutenant in the Army. “Today as
we pay tribute to our many veter-ans,”
Theresa said, “we also want to
pay tribute to our women veterans.”
The program continued as Fred
asked the veterans in the audi-ence
to stand as he called out the
branch of each of the armed forces:
Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast
Guard and Merchant Marines. This
provided a nice segue to the intro-duction
of four veterans, all NST
residents, who recounted some
of their experiences serving in the
armed forces: Dan Nachmanoff,
who served in Germany during the
Cold War; Bob Bader, who worked
in intelligence during WWII; and
Bud Bank. who joined the Army at
age 17. Dan Broad, who was in the
Flying Tigers, gave a moving speech
as he told the audience that one of
the last three of the living Flying
Tigers and dear friend of his had
passed away that very day. “So this
6 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ December 2021