Everyone loves a parade.
East Hampton has seen the annual Memorial Day Parade going back to the
late 19th century and our Old Home Day Parade since 1910, it now an annual
event since the late 1970s. With the Old Home Day revival in 1953, suspended since WWII, the local American Legion Post No. 64
felt it fitting to participate in a grand way.
Legion members formed a Color Guard and Drill Team which represented the
Legion Post and our Town into the 1960s in various competitions in the State
and in National Parades and Conventions including Atlantic City and Washington
D.C., in the latter receiving the third place trophy as the best performing
Color Guard and Drill Team among the numerous teams participating from around
the country. The irony of these honored
veterans who served in World War II and the Korean Conflict forming a drill
team and voluntarily marching can't be overlooked. Most, if not all of these veterans, while in
active military service, had a disdain for any further organized marching. I'm sure most uttered on numerous occasions,
probably in a somewhat unflattering manner while in their respective branch of
service, that the last thing they would ever do again when discharged is march
- yet here they were. Over that decade
from formation, over 20 veterans - Legion members participated, with weekly
practices, in parades and full recognition of deceased veterans. Participating were Gilson Hall, Richard
Hitchcock, Charles Walton, James Wall, Jr., Donald Markham, Arthur Jacobson,
Jr., Hilding Hanson, John Jacobson, John Hanson, Francis Phillips, Edgar
Prince, Henry Fielding, Richard Bertrand, Rev. John Hosmer, Byron Clark, Lester
Hammond, Harold Lord, Louis Valli, William Marquess, and Francis Valli.
Gentlemen! We salute you and thank you for your service.
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