Bronxville and Scarsdale region

A good morning to our clergy, distinguished colleagues and honored guests, firemen, police, community organizations, residents and our children AND welcome to the 92nd Annual Bronxville Memorial Day Parade and commemoration.  Memorial Day holds a unique place in the history of our village and its traditions are many.  In the last few years we have renewed our efforts to insure that honoring our servicemen and women takes its rightful place on center stage so we do not ever take for granted those most deserving of our gratitude and our Grand Marshall, this year, George Palmer is precisely one of those so deserving of our thanks.  George, thank you for letting us honor you here today.

Mr. George B. Palmer, Jr. is a Midwestern boy who was born in Minneapolis.  He enlisted in the Army/Air Corp after Pearl Harbor after only one semester at the University of Minnesota.

Following expedited training, George was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant and received his wings and navigation certification.

Flying only his 10^th B-24 sortie over Hungary on a mission to disable oil refineries, his plane was shot down and he went from college freshman to George B. Palmer Prisoner of War No. 7910.  George ended up at Stalag Luft III – the camp that was the subject of the movie “The Great Escape”.  He was then transferred to a POW camp in Munich arriving 45 lbs thinner than on the day of his fateful flight.

Finally in April of 1945, Gen. George Patton’s Seventh Army arrived and liberated the camp.  Within hours, George stood at attention as the general walked through the barracks.

But George’s service did not end there.  He served again in the Korean War for almost two years.

Blessed to come home, George finished college and moved to Bronxville to begin a career with Lehman Brothers.  Three of his four sons graduated from the building right behind us.

George, you are so very modest, but you are a hero and your hometown is so proud to honor you today.  Serving our country is the noblest of callings and love of country and devotion to freedom must never go out of fashion.

And true to the character of our very special village, we have many more heroes like George and many sadly not as lucky as George to come home to Bronxville.  Many went to heaven far too young.

Young men like Charlie Flammer, Princeton Class of 1941 and B25 Bomber pilot, he lost an engine and then maneuvered his plane so that his entire crew could get out while he went down with his plane.  Still considered MIA, he has a nephew named after him and if you go by Christ Church a full size stained glass window is dedicated to Charlie.

Or…. Douglas von Buskirk who knew of the exploits of WWI ace and village resident Eddie Rickenbacker, who lived at 26 Prescott and belonged to the Leonard Morange American Legion Post named after another of our local heroes, Rickenbacker won the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as virtually every other military decoration having shot down 25 enemy planes and logged 300 combat flying hours, the most in WWI.  Doug’s father was an Olympic fencer participating in the 1924, 1928 and 1932 games and saw Hitler’s evil up close and shared his stories with his son.

Galvanized by both his dad and Rickenbacker, Douglas joined the RAF in 1939, his only opportunity to take a side against Hitler at the time.  While he was fighting in the European theater, his mom was managing our Womrath’s Book store and his dad volunteered on the village’s Housing Commission.  Doug was shot down during a night bombing raid in 1941.  There is a plaque in his honor in the Reformed Church.

Mike Ransom – Bronxville High and Colby College graduate, lost his life in 1968 just two months after arriving in Vietnam.  He was a respected platoon leader and the eldest of six Bronxville sons.

Or……Ed Keeble, Bronxville School, Deerfield and Princeton who joined the Marines and became a gunship pilot.  He kept enemy fire trained on him so an air ambulance could Medivac the injured out of the jungle.  He was shot down by the North Vietnamese and he is buried at Arlington.

And there are so many, many more.

These young men were our neighbors, someone’s son, your child’s best friend in school, the boy you coached in soccer.  They truly were the hero next door.  Disraeli said, “The legacy of a hero is the memory of a great man and the inheritance of a great example.”  Their bravery, service and sense of duty must continue to be an ethos that defines our village.

I believe their message to us, young and old, is to answer the call.  Ours may not be as dangerous or as gallant a pursuit but answer;  be brave at whatever you try; follow your conscience, step up when needed; volunteer even when not called.

By behaving this way we honor our heroes every day.

So as you leave today, do not be sad rather follow Gen. Patton’s advice who said, “We should not mourn those men who died while serving, rather we should thank God that such men lived.”

Thank you to all of our veterans and God Bless America.

Graduates toss their caps in the air after graduation at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

See more photos of graduation at West Point

For an upcoming story on food trucks, we want to know your favorite spots. We’d like to know about those hot dog trucks, sure, but what we’re really looking for are the trucks that are doing something out-of-the-ordinary.

Let me know and we might feature your favorites in the paper!

Read on for how to link in to the town hall with Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, which starts at 7 p.m. May 30.

COUNTY EXECUTIVE ASTORINO TO HOST “ASK ASTORINO” TELE-TOWN HALL

Residents invited to call in with questions or just listen

Want to ask County Executive Rob Astorino how he is working to lower your taxes or any other question? You will get your chance on a live telephone town hall meeting hosted by Astorino next Wednesday night, May 30 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

To ask a question, or just listen in, residents are invited to call toll-free 877-228-2184 and enter event ID 19135. More →

More than 80 World War II veterans have been interviewed for a town history project and this weekend local residents will get to hear those stories and experiences.

The Town of Greenburgh will broadcast interviews with the veterans, all Greenburgh residents, on its cable channels this weekend in honor of Memorial Day. The interviews, part of the Living History of the Veterans of the Town of Greenburgh project, will begin airing at 5 p.m. today and run through the holiday.

“Some of their stories are just incredible,” said Alan Hochberg, a town resident who has been conducting the interviews for three years. “These are ordinary men and some women who are just phenomenal.”

The interviews – interspersed with war footage and put together with help from Vietnam War vet Steve Wittenberg and town employee George Malone – chronicle the veterans’ experiences during and after the war. Some died shortly after their interviews but their stories will be shown, including a talk with Don Blum, who served on the U.S.S. Indianapolis and passed away about a year ago, Hochberg said.

Blum’s ship transported the trigger for atomic bombs to Tinian, an island of the Northern Mariana Islands, Hochberg said. It was from there in 1945 that soldiers would deploy atomic bombs for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On its return, Hochberg said, Blum told how his ship was hit by a torpedo, sinking and killing some of the crew. He said half the men who survived were eaten by sharks.

“It’s living history,” said Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. “For students who will watch it, whole families will watch it. It makes it local. There’s more of a connection.”

The town identified veterans by looking for those who claimed special property tax exemptions. Hochberg said the next series of interviews will feature Korean War vets. Any who are interested in being interviewed can call Town Hall at 914-993-1525.

The interviews will air on channels 75 and 76 on Cablevision and on channels 34 and 35 on Verizon FIOS. Copies of the interviews are also available for viewing at the Greenburgh Library.

Here’s the announcement:

PLANNING PROJECTS TO BE SHOWCASED AT JUNE 7 AWARDS DINNER

Westchester Municipal Planning Federation celebrates best of local efforts; two county government projects among the award winners

The winners of successful planning projects that enhance Westchester’s quality of life will be honored at the Westchester Municipal Planning Federation’s (WMPF) 39th Annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, June 7, at 6 p.m. at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough.

Winning projects were in New Castle, Ossining Village, Pelham Manor, White Plains, Yonkers, Mamaroneck Village and Rye Brook, plus two county government projects. Three individuals will also be given special recognition. More →

Students at the William E. Cottle school can celebrate the end of the school year at a Family Fun Night on Monday, June 4 on the Cottle field from 6 to 8 p.m.

Students and their families will get to enjoy a demonstration of traditional Italian dances by performer Ramzi Edibi and watch the Frisbee Dogs, who have performed at halftime at NBA and NFL games.

The program will be led by professionals from the Science Museum of Long Island, the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Center, 2 Hands 2 Lear, and Science Tellers. Also on hand will be representatives from the Stamford Museum, Central Park Zoo Wild Life Theater, EZ Reptile Shows, and the Liberty Science Center. Journey into American Indians will show what daily living was like in the Life of the Northeast Woodland Indians exhibit.

There will be “hands on” art fun tables set up for do-it-yourself projects for children to take home.  Hot dogs, ice cream and light refreshments will be provided by the Tuckahoe School Foundation.

. Folk music will be heard by the Saws and Washboard ensemble. An exciting feature will be Bill Camp and his Famous Flyi

Andrea Pinkney, a New York Times best-selling children and young adult author, will perform a book reading to music on June 11 at 4 p.m. at Concordia College’s Sommer Center.

The event, called Musical Adventures at the Library with Concordia Conservatory, will feature Pinkney (pictured) reading from  Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down and Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride while accompanied by Conservatory faculty guitarist Rami Vamos and pianist Matt Van Brink.

The musical reading is free and open to the public and targeted at children from pre-K through 8th grade.

The Community Fund, with Concordia Conservatory of Music & Art and the public libraries of Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe are sponsoring the event.

There are several of these that come out about this time of year, lists of local schools that have reached a benchmark for excellence according to a general interest publication.

Newsweek and The Daily Beast have released their top 1,000 public high schools, with New York scoring 118 of the slots, second only to California.

Among the top 10 from among the New York schools is Bronxville High School, number 40 on the list.

The others on the top 10 were City Honors School in Buffalo at 11; Jerico High School at 41; Hunter College High School at 44; Bronx High School of Science at 50; Locust Valley High School at 55; Great Neck South High School at 56; Pittsford Sutherland High School at 61; The Wheatley School in Old Westbury at 62; and Stuyvesant High School at 66.

A bunch of other area schools made the list as well. Here are those that made the top 1,000 even if they didn’t make the top 10 in New York: Rye, 77; Irvington, 79; Edgemont, 142; Rye Neck, 155; Pleasantville, 173; Hastings, 227; Clarkstown South, 348; Clarkstown North, 358; Tappan Zee, 403; Yonkers, 409;

Dobbs Ferry, 286; Croton Harmon, 311; Eastchester, 314; Pelham Memorial, 330; Mamaroneck, 532; Somers, 718; Hendrick Hudson, 747; Sleepy Hollow, 986; and Mahopac, 987.

The schools were chosen based on four-year on-time graduation rate, percentage of 2011 graduates accepted into college; percentage of students taking college-level courses and special examinations including Advanced Placement and their average scores; average SAT and ACT scores; college-level curriculum available at the school.

All of the New York schools can be seen here.

“The continued success of our public high schools is a direct result of the hard work by our outstanding teachers and other committed education professionals working in classrooms across News York state who dedicate themselves, day-in and day-out, to ensuring their students receive the best education possible,” said Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers.

Is your commute killing you?

Reporter Theresa Juva asks that question on her blog, Commuter Life, today after reporting on a study that links poor health to long drives to work.

By the time you finish your final meal of the day, there is no time to do much else. There is no time to exercise. And there is no time to go to the gym, and it’s a huge issue, because I used to be a gym rat.”

— Christine Bruno, Garrison

Tell us how your commute affects your health on the Commuter Life blog. Some of the best stories may be printed in The Journal News.