Pearl Harbor tribute in East Farmingdale to fallen service members

Edward Callahan, 99, grew up watching the United States Navy fleet come in "pretty regularly" from his Manhattan neighborhood with a view of the East River.

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the then-18-year-old did more than just watch the ships come in. He enlisted. And for the next several years, he did his bit to help the allies win World War II working in Navy Aviation Ordinance. Callahan said he was far from alone.

"An awful lot of people in my neighborhood enlisted," he said.

Honoring sacrifice

On Thursday, Callahan and other veterans of the war, along with their families, gathered at the American Airpower Museum in East Farmingdale for an event commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the attacks, which killed more than 2,400 Americans, including at least 12 Long Islanders, injured 1,200 more and spurred President Franklin Roosevelt to declare war on Japan.

Callahan, who later raised a family in West Hempstead, served as a gunner on a submarine patrol. On the day of attacks, he and most of his friends, neighbors and three older brothers "didn't know what Pearl Harbor was," he said.

Each of the World War II veterans in attendance, who ranged in age from 95 to 102, were presented with proclamations by Suffolk and Nassau counties.

The annual event included traditional military pomp and circumstance, with retired veterans of the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy, along with representatives of local VFWs and American Legion posts, looking on.

A bugler played "Taps." A military chaplain blessed three bundles of a combined 82 roses — one for each year since the bombings. The chaplain also blessed a single white rose marking the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The roses were next presented to a pilot who departed from the museum in a vintage aircraft before dropping them above the Statue of Liberty.

A tribute of roses

The Dropping of the Roses tradition dates back to 1971 and was the idea of Joseph Hydrusko, a Pearl Harbor Navy medic credited with saving countless lives as the Japanese dropped their bombs on the American fleet, according to the Long Island Air Force Association. Following Hydrusko's death in 1974, members of the Skytypers aviation group and the Air Force Association continued with the tradition.

"We have to take these opportunities to pay tribute to those that are still here with us to 400,000-plus Americans who sacrificed everything to ensure the freedoms and values we enjoy today," said Retired Col. Bill Stratemeier, treasurer of the Long Island chapter of the Air Force Association, which organized the event.

At 102, retired Army Staff Sgt. Dominick Critelli of Floral Park was one of the oldest veterans in attendance.

Critelli, who was drafted at age 22, served as a member of the 377th Infantry Regiment’s Artillery Aviation Unit and was stationed in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

In November 1944, Critelli said, he flew behind enemy lines to deliver supplies to isolated American troops, completing 14 missions in a four-day period while bullets hit his plane.

Critelli, who was trained to repair and maintain planes used for observation, also helped get trapped soldiers vital supplies during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, as German forces broke through the allied line in the Ardennes region of Belgium and France.

A 'band of brothers'

The chatty centenarian, who is also a lifelong saxophone player and still plays every Tuesday in a 15-piece band, said Thursday's ceremony makes him remember his "band of brothers" and the ones who did not come home.

"They were my friends," Critelli said. "I always think of them. They couldn't come. They couldn't be here. It's really something that you feel."

Thomas Urbanski, 17, of Bohemia, an aviation student at Bixhorn Technical Center and Eastern BOCES who attended the ceremony with classmates, said that the legacy of veterans have surpassed generations and inspired him to become a Navy fighter pilot.

The teenager spoke with 102-year-old U.S. Army veteran Richard Heinl, one of the honored veterans who was part of the 94th Infantry Division, known as "Roosevelt's Butchers" and in the second wave at D-Day in Normandy.

"These people are the history of America that really brought us together and protected us," said Urbanski. "The least we could do is come out here and thank them, and be here with them."