Rye Memorial Day to Remember

“Old soldiers never die, they just fade away,” legendary World War II and Korea Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur once famously said. But Rye’s old –and not-so-old – soldiers, sailors and Marine veterans refuse to fade away, coming from all over town to honor their living and dead in a stirring community-packed Memorial Day program to remember at Cty Hall.

More than 150 community residents filled the City Hall Council chambers to overflowing, spilling over into the outside halls. At least 40 Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies and Daisies, crowded the aisles behind the podium for the salute to the flag. A small army of veterans led by Commander James K. Burke advanced the colors and Johanna Loddo sang the Star Spangled Banner during the more than hour-long ceremony.

It was small town Americana at its best with past commander Thomas M. Saunders, a former Navy vet specializing in anti-submarine warfare, being named Westchester County Legionnaire of the Year –a Rye first –to Robin Phelps Latimer and her husband, Assemblyman George Latimer, winning the 2011 Americanism Award.

It was the surprises that made this ceremony so special.

Principal speaker Captain Jason Armas, U.S. Marine Corps, was unavailable because he had been deployed at the last minute to Afghanistan; Rye resident Bertrand de Frondeville took his place. Larry Bocksel, 87, a veteran of the Omaha Beach D-Day  June 6, 1944 invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, coming from his home in Lords Valley, PA to be with his Rye family, real and extended, for the occasion.

For more than ninety years, Rye American Legion Post 128 has been honoring those from Rye who have served their country. Each ceremony has been special. As special as those who served from Rye: 384 in World War I, nine died; World War II there were 1345 men and women served, 46 died; Korea 194 served, one died, 1 missing in action; and Vietnam –190 served, three died.

This Memorial Day ceremony was different because it was filled with the expected as well as the unexpected.

This time around, the early morning rains had planners switch the ceremony from outdoors on the Village Green to inside City Hall. When the Rev. Dr. Nancy De Vries, pastor of Rye Presbyterian Church, failed to show up to give the invocation,  American Legion, Post 128 Chaplain Philip Clancy gave the invocation and the Rev. Msgr. Edward O’Donnell of Rye’s Church of the Resurrection was there to give the benediction.

When Rye’s own Capt. Jason Armas was called away to Afghanistan, Rye’s Bertrand de Frondeville stepped forward to give the keynote address with the poise and polish that comes from being French nobility dating back to the 15th century when one of his ancestors founded France’s version of Annapolis.

De Frondeville,  a world-class sailor, nuclear engineer and one of the brains behind France’s first nuclear submarine, recalled how he was a boy in Morocco in 1942 when Rye’s John Carolin, then an Army lieutenant, landed there during World War II. At the time, de Frondeville’s father commanded the French Navy base there. Rye's de Frondeville, a marquis, saluted the contributions France had made to the American war effort going back to Revolutionary War Days.

Those who know de Frondeville noticed his modesty because he failed to mention his own contributions as a retired commander in the French Navy, still active in the Naval Reserve.

So the ceremony went. Rye Mayor Douglas French gave the opening greetings and Matthew Sullivan of Rye’s Resurrection School read Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (“Ike,” of course, being the former U.S. President who also, during his Army days, led the D-Day Invasion).

As stirring as the talks were, it was the moments that weren’t listed on the program that brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience.

Army Air Force veteran Edward. T. Dempsey was called to the podium to be saluted by his two uniformed grandsons, twins Greg and Ted Demspsey, both recent graduates of West Point and Annapolis respectively.

Ted and Carole Armas were given an ovation because of the military contributions of their sons, not just because Jason had just been called away from his principal speaker role to serve yet another tour of duty in Afghanistan–he has already done hitches there as well as in Iraq). They were also applauded because of what their other sons were doing: Tom is a Marine Corps Lt. Colonel, Mathew is a Navy Lieutenant out of Annapolis, and Jason just graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

D-Day came alive in the testimony of Larry Bocksel who spoke about surviving Omaha Beach. His brother Arnold came through the Bataan Death March and several years in a Japanese concentration camp while another brother, Raymond, lived through overseas duty laying mines.

His brother Arnold died earlier this year in a military hospital at age 97, choosing to die with his band of brothers there knowing his biological brothers would understand because they had been there, Bocksel told Patch.

Bocksel was surrounded by his family members, including his wife Laurel, and his Rye daughter Amy Lacomme and her family– Ethan, Mimi, Owen and Jamie. Cub Scout Owen, 11, stood beside his grandfather as he was honored by the American Legion on what turned out to be the boy's 11th birthday.

They also included young Rye residents who only knew war from afar. Rye Memorial essay contest winners Claudia Hentschel, Andrew Hudson and Tommy Speers finished first, second and third respectively, with Claudia's mother Ann reading her daughter's winning entry.

Christopher LaMagna, Yuta Makita, James Higney and Daniel Newmark earned Eagle Scout Recognition.

Past commander John. C. Carolin, 90, read the Rolls of Honor while Rye High School’s Kevin Miller, 17, played the haunting taps.

All in all, truly a day to remember with the sun also belatedly rising so that the early morning rains couldn’t dampen the community spirit that personified Rye’s coming out to honor their military living and dead.