Today’s Star Spangled Salute honors 97-year-old World War II Veteran Bill Gossett. Almost 80 years ago Bill attended Lincoln College for a short time before transferring to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but he ended up joining the U.S. Army Air Corps before finishing a degree. When Bill returned from the war he took over the family’s dry cleaner business and got busy with life, learning to run a business, family and more. In 2019 Bill finally decided he wanted to finish what he started as a goal of self-fulfillment. He finished in 2020, but had to wait until this year for the ceremony. Congratulations Bill and THANK YOU for your service.
“It’s foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived,” Brig. Gen. John Gentry said at the annual Memorial Day program
View Comments
BERGENFIELD Two months ago, the borough s Memorial Day Parade remained a nebulous proposition, tied up in the uncertain future of the coronavirus pandemic.
But that didn t stop Bergenfield Mayor Arvin Amatorio from devising scenarios involving masks, no masks and various permutations of social distancing. We knew we could cancel it if we had to, Amatorio said. But the town also had to be ready for the best-case scenario: lovely weather and free-ranging people and politicians.
That s what Bergenfield got on Monday as hundreds turned out for the annual parade to honor U.S. veterans who died in service of their country. It fell just four days after Gov. Phil Murphy relaxed masking requirements for vaccinated residents across the state.