Gold Star Stories
Each Memorial Day, a parade of Piermont residents, including the Veterans, gather at Kinney Street and Piermont Avenue. We proudly march to JFK Park where the GI Joe statue waves to the soldiers who passed through Piermont during WW II to serve and protect the freedoms we enjoy today.
The Gold Star families gather behind the crosses that represent those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, the soldiers that didn’t return. The Fallen Soldier Battle Cross, made up of the soldier’s rifle stuck into the soldier’s boots with a helmet on top, eerily stands in front of the crosses commanding our respect. Each year, Piermont Mayor, Christopher Sanders, recreated for us the story of one of the fallen. The stories are haunting and the sacrifice does not go unnoticed.
Private Richard Fournier
Private Fournier joined with the 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division situated in Monschau on the Belgian – German border along the Roer River. The 39th Infantry Regiment would join the First and Ninth Army in the final push from the Roer to the Rhine as part of Operation Lumberjack.
— May 2017
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Sergeant Vincent Bradner
Vincent served as a Ball Turret Gunner on the B-17 Flying Fortress. The ball turret hung beneath the B-17, designed as an extremely small space in order to reduce drag. The ball turret was an unforgiving space and was typically assigned to the smallest man of the crew.
— May 2016
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Private First Class Peter Sbordone
PFC Sbordone and the 9th Armored were attached to the VIII Corps of the First U.S. Army, located in the Ardennes Region of Belgium and Luxembourg. The 6th Panzer Army was preparing for the beginning of the brutal German counter-offensive, the battle of the Bulge. On November 7th, 1944 while on patrol along the Our river near Fels, Luxumbourg, PFC Peter Sbordone was killed in action.
— May 2015
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Sergeant Bernard Haring
Sgt. Haring’s regiment spent the balance of July and August of 1944 aggressively pushing the front line across Northern France and Belgium, in a continuous, offensive press on the German defenses. Pushing towards the German border, through the woods near Aachen, Sgt. Haring’s valiant efforts in securing freedom were finally extinguished. Sgt. Bernard Haring was killed near the town of Aubel, Belgium on September 13th, 1944 – just as other US troops were crossing parts of the Siegfried line into Germany for the first time.
— May 2014
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Private Peter F. Scolaro
Despite the fact that the Allies outnumbered the German army by a ratio of 3 to 1, it took seven days before the Gustav Line could be broken, finally with Allies occupying the famed Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. On one occasion, an extensive minefield on a hill known as “131” near Solacciano had to be cleared by the 310th to allow the Infantry clear passage. Perhaps involved in this mine sweep Pvt. Scolaro gave his life on Sunday May 14, 1944.
— May 2013
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Sergeant Joseph Hartz
Joseph Hartz graduated from Tappan Zee High School in Piermont, a decorated athlete in Cross Country and Basketball. He entered the conflict in Vietnam the following year at the age of 19, in June of 1967. The beginning of March [1968] found [Joseph’s Company] engaged in a fierce battle on the outskirts of Hoc Mon, four miles northwest of Saigon along Highway 1. On March 6th 1968, Sergeant Joseph Hartz was killed in action, just a few weeks before his 20th birthday.
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Private First Class Dennis Hogan Jr.
Dennis Hogan Jr. (Junie) who gave his life in the Philippines in April of 1945 and whose body remains missing, unidentified to this day. We acknowledge the long history of the Hogan family in Piermont and Orangetown, their service and sacrifice to our country. He was attached to the 11th Airborne, as a member of the newly formed 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment. This unit was formed specifically for the task of island-hopping and securing positions for the eventual invasion of Japan.
— May 2011
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Master Sergeant Louis Caputo
MSG Caputo was born in 1918; he was 42 years old when he gave his life in Korea. His commitment to defend our freedom began when he put on the uniform of the US Army in June of 1941. His service throughout World War II was exemplary – earning a Bronze Star for his valor. At the close of the war he remained on the front line of defending our country – assigned to hold the peace defending Japan in the face of post war Soviet aggression, and the global standoff of the Cold War.
— May 2010
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