There will be no Memorial Day parade in Verona this year because of COVID-19.
Instead tomorrow, Monday, May 25, at 10 a.m. the township will post a video to its YouTube channel of a wreath-laying ceremony by the mayor and Town Council that it taped on Friday. At 3 p.m. Monday, Verona’s emergency horn will sound to remind residents to remember those who died in service to our country. There is also a national call for buglers and trumpet players to play Taps at that time.
Verona’s memorials to those who died in World War I and World War II are on the lawn in front of town hall and can be visited at any time. Residents can also remember the fallen as they take a walk around town. In 2015, Verona installed commemorative signs honoring each of them at intersections around town. The signs had been marched into town during that year’s Memorial Day parade, and you can watch the video of that again here.
The signs stem from research by Verona resident Rob Caruso, who compiled histories on the life and death of each man for a website he calls “Verona Heroes”. The men (no Verona women have died in service) participated in most of America’s major conflicts, from the Civil War to Vietnam. Read about them as you walk:
Pvt. John E. Ahrendtsen (World War II)
Cpl. Arthur L. Albe (World War II)
EM Arthur J. Anderson (World War II)
Cpl. Ralph S. Buggeln (World War II)
Pvt. John H. Chidester (World War II)
Sgt. Daniel W. Conklin (World War II)
Lt. Edwin E. Courter (World War II)
Pvt. Benjamin F. Douglas (World War I)
Cpl. Hobart Earle (World War II)
Pvt. Constantine Emanuel (World War II)
Pvt. Robert O. Fielding (World War II)
Lt. John L. Gage (World War II)
Lt. Gordon T. Gates (World War II)
Lt. Gerald Daly Geoghegan (Vietnam)
Capt. David Q. Hammond (World War II)
Cpl. Anthony Hein (Vietnam)
Lt. William Hinrichs (World War II)
Pvt. Michael Kiefer (Civil War)
Sgt. Robert B. Klepzig (World War II)
Pvt. Michael C. Leone (World War II)
Sgt. Albert B. LeRoy (World War II)
LCPL Robert A. McCloskey (Vietnam)
Pvt. Winfield Scott McIntyre (World War I)
Lt. Nicholas F. Michetti (World War II)
Sgt. Peter F. Nicoulin (World War II)
Pvt. Max Novick (World War II)
Maj. Eugene Pabst (Vietnam)
Pvt. Walter S. Personett (Civil War)
Lt. James S. Randolph (World War II)
Lt. William A. Robertson, III (World War II)
CM George Schiabor (World War II)
Pvt. Edwin C. Smoot (World War II)
SPC Alan K. Taylor (Vietnam)
Lt. Joseph Watson Taylor (World War II)
Lt. Warren O. Van Winkle (World War II)
Pvt. John B. Wands, Jr. (World War II)
Pvt. Robert R. Whealdon (World War II)
Sgt. Charles Weller (World War II)
Lt. Robert R. Wilson (World War II)
MM Walter Budd Wimley (World War II)
Sgt. Frank G. Wittenweiler (World War I)
MM William A Wittenweiler, Jr. (World War II)
Sig. Thurston Fuller Woodford (World War II)
