New Hyde Park Commemorates Pearl Harbor

Stanley Sitchell, a member of the New Hyde Park Veterans of Foreign Wars group, was on his way back to his camp when he stopped at a diner and was asked by one of the patrons if he had heard about what happened at Pearl Harbor. It was at that point that he, "knew that we were in for good."

Sitchell had signed up for one year of service in January, 1941. Men were allowed to sign up for one year of basically training, as Sitchell described it, where if the country wasn't at war, you would put in your year and be done. When Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941, that changed everything Sitchell's plans.

He put in another four years after Pearl Harbor. Sitchell was an airman, rising to the ranks of aircraft commander of the B-29, which was the biggest bomber in World War II. Sithcell's service time was spent over the Pacific and involved bombing Japan.

Edward Smolenski, who didn't joint the Navy until 1943 because he wasn't old enough to join until then, heard about Pearl Harbor on the radio while he was listen to a Giants football game.

"I just couldn't get over it," he said.

Everyone seemed to want to get into the services after Pearl Harbor to support their country, Smolenski said.

New Hyde Park marked the 69th anniversary of this tragedy with the local VFW performing a brief ceremony at the time the USS Arizona was attached. A group of about seven members of the local VFW marked the occasion with a speech by New Hyde Park VFW Commander Smolenski, followed by members of the group placing a wreath in front of Village Hall and then firing three volleys.

This is the fifth year the New Hyde Park VFW has commemorated this day. Alan Barton, the group's junior vice commander, has suggested the group have a ceremony to give a salute and send off for the thousands of people who lost their lives that day, and Barton points out that many of those men were between the ages of 17 and 20. "Sunday morning, they were buried in the ship," Barton said.

One of those men was New Hyde Park's own Michael Peleschak, who is memorialized on the plaque outside of the .