For Long Island veterans, a day to remember service and sacrifice

Veteran Charles L. Lauer, 96, remembers enlisting in the United States Navy in 1944 as a 17-year-old from Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood during World War II — because he wanted to avoid being drafted into the Army.

“I had a preference for the water and the Navy, and my two friends that were in the Army were both wounded. My future was better with the Navy,” said Lauer, who relocated to Long Island in the 1950s, where he’s lived ever since.

During his years in the Navy, Lauer traveled the world. He saw war up close as a sailor who maintained and operated guns aboard a ship that bombarded Japan and sank a Japanese destroyer. He saw peace brokered aboard the USS Missouri, albeit at a distance: Lauer was aboard the USS Chicago cruiser in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed documents of surrender in 1945.

“I was a 19-year-old kid from Brooklyn, and I saw the incident, but I didn’t think that much of it” at the time, Lauer said on the eve of Veterans Day, adding: “I was just excited to get home, that the war was over.”

“The incident” — Sept. 2, 1945, in which Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed the Instrument of Surrender, followed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur — effectively marked the end of World War II.

About 125,000 current Long Islanders are veterans, according to Ralph Esposito, director of Nassau County’s veterans services agency who also served in the Navy from 1961 to 1964, during the Vietnam era, aboard the USS Ticonderoga aircraft carrier.

The number of veterans is diminishing nationwide and on the Island; Esposito estimated that it hit its peak on the Island during the Vietnam era.

In 2010, there were 1,872,263 veterans of that war still living — including 23,642 on the Island, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2020, those numbers had dwindled to 457,674 nationwide and 5,668 on the Island.

Friday is Veterans Day, when those like Lauer who served in the military are honored across the Island and the nation in parades, ceremonies and salutes.

The holiday's roots are in the cessation of fighting between Germany and the allied nations in World War I, in an armistice that commenced on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, hence the date Veterans Day is celebrated.

After being honorably discharged at Lido Beach, Lauer got married and had a son and a daughter. The family lived in Setauket, Stony Brook and Southold for decades before he moved this fall into The Bristal assisted living facility in Holtsville.

Before retiring, he taught fifth grade on the Island and held the top posts overseeing seven school districts across the Island, including in Floral Park, Westhampton Beach, Riverhead and Smithtown.

Lt. Col. Colleen Burgemaster, who chairs Hofstra University’s military science department and oversees ROTC on Long Island, said: “While Memorial Day is a time to remember those who died in the service of their country, Veterans Day is a time to remember all those who have served, past and present.” She added: “We honor those brave men and women from all walks of life who stepped forward to defend our nation throughout history.”

Esposito, the Nassau County veterans services official, lamented that fewer and fewer people have the experience of serving in the military.

“You come back a man. You learn respect. You learn discipline. You learn to take orders,” he said.

But those lessons come with a cost — and sometimes the ultimate one.

“We go in, we don’t know where we’re going. We can be stateside. We can go to war,” he said. “You don’t know where you’re gonna end up — and you don’t know what’s gonna happen when you’re there.”

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.