Veterans museum dedicated

Hundreds turn out in Putnam, Westchester to honor war dead
It was 55 years ago, but 80year-old Robert Slingerland won't ever forget the day he was freed from a Nazi labor camp after nine long months.
"I was liberated by a beautiful, very blond Russian major commanding four tanks," the Rye resident said yesterday. "It doesn't get any better than that."
Slingerland was among 300 people who attended yes terday's opening of  the Westchester County Veterans Museum at Lasdon Park and Arboretum in Somers one of several Memorial Day tributes held throughout the region.
Other events included a ceremony at the Daniel J. O'Brien Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1374 in Carmel and a graveside tribute in Mahopac Falls to an early American militiaman.
About 75 people gathered at the William Hill Cemetery in Mahopac Falls to pay their respects to Capt. William Hill. He served in a local militia during the French and Indian War and was one of the earliest settlers in Putnam County.  His two sons served in the Revolutionary War.
A plaque honoring the Hill family and Carmel town historian Allan Warnecke, who led the cemetery's restoration, was placed in the cemetery.
The Westchester museum in a cozy, one-story building amid the park's rolling hills and towering pines  was organized by the local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter, the county parks and recreation department and the county veterans service agency.
A World War II exhibit is now on display.
"The veterans did an excellentjob of accumulating all the
material," County Executive Andrew Spano  said. "We want it to be an educational  tool for children
and other people,  who hopefully will  never be through another war."
Gerry Daub, a  retired architect  from Nyack, donated five photographs of a Nazi mine camp at Buchenwald where he was imprisoned during World War II.  One photo shows a shirtless, emaciated Daub sitting with other Jewish American soldiers upon their release.
"The ceremony was very moving," Daub said.  "It really honored the people who are not here today."
An advisory committee will be formed to locate material from other wars and design monthly displays at the museum, Spano said.
The event also commemorated improvements to the park's Trail of Honor.  Built by the local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in 1997, the trail features 12 busts of military personnel outfitted from each major American war.
The county recently spent $100,000 to pave the trail and replace the gravel around each monument with crafted stones.
Ronald Tocci, chairman of the State Assembly's Comm on Veterans Affairs, told the audience that the memorials would teach younger generations about the sacrifices their elders made.
"I would hope that this teaches young people about all the wonderful people who fought so courageously and continued to be productive citizens when they came back to this county," Tocei said.
Peter Addorisio, a Vietnam veteran from Dobbs Ferry, said the museum would help bridge long-standing cultural and age gaps between those who fought in different wars.
World War II veterans did not make Addorisio and his friends wel I. come at the Hastings Veterans of Foreign Wars post when they returned from Southeast Asia with long hair and scraggly beards, he
said.
"I look at those guys a lot different now," Addorisio said.  "Time heals a lot of things."
Museum organizers are still looking for donations and suggestions.
Call 767-0527 for information.
 

Those traditions included organizing appropriate ceremonies on patriotic holidays, recalling personal sacrifices made by mernhers of the armed forces and waging fights to protect veteran's' benefits, particularly health benefits.

Older veterans can rest assured, at least in this area. Veterans of the Vietnam War have stepped front and center and taken  on the assignment, and in grand style.  The dedication of the Westchester County Veterans Museum at the county's Lasdon Park and Arboretum ui Somers over the Memorial Day weekend is new proof of the effort by those who fought a war a quarter-century ago - veterans, who we might add, did not get the homecoming welcome they deserved.

The first exhibit to be held at the museum features memorabilia from World War II, including  pictures taken at  Nazi concentration camps.

The museum was organized by the Westchester Chapter, Vietnam Veterans of America, together with the Westchester Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation and the Westchester Veterans Service Agency.  An advisory committee is being formed to organize monthly exhibits  from all wars.

The building complements previously erected monuments to veterans; the Trail of Honor built in 1997 by the Vietnam Veterans Chapter, featuring 12 busts of military personnel outfitted from each major American War, and the striking monuments dedicated in 1987 in a woodland setting at the end of a trail listing the names of all the area's fallen from the Vietnam War.  All the memorials are worth seeing.

Westchester County has a stake in the memorials, having donated the land and also having recently spent $100,000 to upgrade the site.

Armed with  tools, they renovate 3-family house on Willow Place in Yonkers

LIZ CONSAVAGE
The Journal News

YONKERS - Local veterans want to take care of their own and thev'e putting their muscle behind an effort to create housing for homeless veterans and families in need.

Donning hard hats and armed with hammers  members of Chapter 49 of the Vietnan Veterans of America yesterday worked through the day to help renovate a three-famiiy house on Willow Place.

"When we sweat together we stay together." said Rick Burns of Thornwood, one of about 15 veterans who volunteered time and manpower yesterday to work on a home for Habitat for Humanity of Westchester.

The organization is renovating the he brick house in the city's northwest section to create threeapartments for low-income families.  While working in the house, which has been abandoned about 15 years, crews found newspapers being used for insulation that dated back to the 1890s.

Chapter 49, based in White Plains. wants to renovate and build housing for local homeless veterans and hopes to work in concert with Habitat toward that goal.

"The community has been supportive of our association over the years said chapter member Don
Weigand of Tuckahoe.  "This is all about giving back to the community."

The chapter wants to boost volunteerism and is encouraging local veterans to apply for Habitat housing.  The Willow Place home could be finished as early as December and the organization will then begin work on a two-story home next door.

Chapter 49 has several programs that focus on creating housing, supplying education and finding jobs for fellow veterans. In the past two vears, 150 veterans found jobs after taking the chapter's computer course and 39 men were able to find apartments when the chapter paid their secuity deposit.

"If we can help any of our own people, we will," Yonkers resident and chapter member Frank Morganthaler said.  "There are a lot of people out there who just don't know what opportunities exist."

About 40 percent of the homeless population in the United States is made up of veterans, said Danny Griffin of White Plains, the chapter's executive director.

 "It's a big problem." Griffin said.  "Our guys want to work on a house for a veteran."

Yonkers Mayor John Spencer visited the site yesterday to show his support of fellow chapter members and his pride in a new home for the city.

"This is typical of Vietnam veterans; they just want to get   and help others," said Spencer, who served as an infantry Lieutenant during the Vietnam War.  "They're taking these structures that are sitting here doing nothing and these guys are making them livable for families."