Newsletter for the Alumni and Friends of
Hicksville High School Hicksville, New York

The Editors:
Buffalo Bob Casale '61	Linda (Piccerelli) Hayden '60
Pat (Koziuk) Driscoll '56	Bob (Gleason) Wesley '61

Contributing Editors: Bob Gillette & Walter Schmidt

Webmaster: Roger Whitaker

To contact the editors, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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HICKSVILLE VIETNAM WAR ERA MEMORIAL - PROJECT UPDATE

In December, two new donors and one repeat donor brought in an additional $200, bringingtotal donations to $17,922. Total donations are now about 72% of our $25,000 goal to build, place and maintain the Memorial.

With 170 donors, we have still received donations from less than 10% of theHixNews readership. So, if many of you who have yet to donate can spare as little as $10, we can easily achieve our goal. Please remember, all donations are tax deductible.

An alphabetical list of donors through December, along with details you will need to mail your donation, can be viewed in this month's MEMORIAL UPDATE in the Honoring Our Veterans section of the newsletter. In addition, this month there's a paragraph summarizing donations by year and the average received each month, since we began accepting contributions in October, 2014, the month the Project acheived tax exempt status from the IRS.

No new names were added to The Confirmed List of Names in December, so the total remains at 1,910 names. When you visit this month's detailed UPDATE, please remember that clicking on the two links near the bottom of the page will bring you to the complete Confirmed and Unconfirmed Lists of Names as of the end of December. And, If you have any new information to send us, please email it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Happy New Year and Wishing each of you All Good Things for 2017!!

On behalf of the Project Team,
Joe Carfora, Project Coordinator, HHS 1962

Dear Classmates:

Following are some more of the many notes Bill Walden has received with your donations. These end of year notes, in particular, show how your fellow classmates feel about this project. They also make it clear that any amount you can spare will help us see the Memorial to a successful conclusion, with it's construction in the War Memorial Gardens at the Jerusalem Avenue Middle School (formerly our junior high and our high school before that).

Click here to view the notes

Click here to view the notes.

Sincerely,
Joe Carfora, HHS 1962, Project Coordinator

Please visit Honoring our Vets to check out a poem that is a sobering reminder.

Joe Carfora from the class of 1962 and his wife Sharon went on a cruise and a picture display of their excursion can be seen in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy!!!

Hicksville High School class of '67 Reunion is being planned. But this is the Big One: 50th Reunion. It will be at the Joseph Barry Knights of Columbus, Hicksville. We are starting early to give people time to make plans.

Click here to see the attached flyer for a description of what's in the offing for the weekend and the registration form.

We are asking people to register early and spread the word, Comets '67 to reunite again.

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Dear Classmates...

Sharon and I took a "two tours in one" river cruise trip in France with Viking River Cruises in October. Week 1 was spent sailing the Seine River from Paris to Normandy and back, making different stops on the return trip to Paris. The center pieces of that week were the Allied Memorials and US National Cemetery at Normandy, the site of the D-Day Invasion in June, 1944 that resulted in the end of WWII in Europe nearly a year later in May, 1945. This experience was particularly moving for us since we spent my military service enjoying being stationed in Germany in the late 1960's. To think if we were born a generation earlier, I could easily have been one of the many young men killed trying to storm the beach at Normandy, many of them seeing battle for the first time. You couldn't help but feel "there for the Grace of God go I"! After spending our last day of week 1 seeing different parts of Paris, we took a high speed train to Lyon, France 's third largest city after Paris and Marseilles, to board another Viking ship on the Rhone River. The Rhone is one of three European rivers that empties into the Mediterranean Sea and flows through France's famous wine country, a large part of which was occupied by the Romans in ancient times. Our trip ended in Avignon, known for serving as the Papal Seat for over 200 years, after the election of the first French Pope. If any HixNews readers are interested in more details of the trip, they can feel free to contact me at my email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Best regards...Joe Carfora 1962

Joe reboarding the Viking Rolf in Les Andelys, location of Richard the Lionheart's Castle

Lounge upstairs; dining downstairs, both in ship's forward; all state rooms are aft
(holds 190 passengers)

View from our ship, docked at LePecq, a western Paris suburb

The base of the Eifel Tower

Taken from our bus driving through Paris

Alongside Notre Dame Cathedral, which is on an island in the Seine River, in Paris

Cathedral in Rouen , where we docked to visit the Normandy Beaches

US National WWII Memorial Cemetery , Normandy , France

About 9,500 (40%) of 23,000 + US Soldiers who died on D-Day and the days following are buried here. Next of kin made the decision to keep the remains here, or have them shipped home for local burial.

Typical gravestone, but I chose this one to lay my rose on with a prayer

Outside the British Commonwealth Museum in Normandy

Huge logistical problem! The Allies had no port to use for landing major equipment, so they assembled a huge portable port, built in England , off the coast to unload tanks, trucks, etc.

Map along the sidewall of the US National Cemetery Memorial Plaza showing the various landings along Normandy's Beaches by Allied Forces. Our Allies hit Sword & other beaches to the east. The US hit Omaha & Utah Beaches.

Shoreline View outside the British Commonwealth Museum

View of the English Channel from the US National Cemetery

A Memorial near the Beach

Part of same Memorial

View along the Normandy Beaches Today

Example of artillery that was part of the Allied Invasion

One of many Nazi bunkers along the Normandy Beaches

View of the Seine from Chateau Gaillard, castle fortress built by Richard the Lionheart to protect English territory held in Northern France & Normandy in Medieval times

Top deck view of the Viking Buri going through a lock, during week 2 in Southern France, along the Rhone River

A Roman coliseum in the city of Arles, Capital of Roman Gaul

View of a coliseum entry way

The Arles Coliseum as it looks today

Pont du Gard Aqueduct near Avignon , site of the French Papal Seat for 200+ years in Medieval times

Joe & Sharon aboard the Viking Rolf

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Honoring our Veterans

Submitted by Kathy McDonald Corey

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter beside me, angelic in rest

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love, I would sleep,

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered perhaps and started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

So I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,

Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight,

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold,

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child,

"What are you doing," I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out there,

Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve",

For barely a moment, I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold, and the snow blown in drifts

Memory Lane

January Through the Years

January 1, 1776 - During the American Revolution, George Washington unveiled the Grand Union Flag, the first national flag in America.

January 1, 1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in the states rebelling against the Union.

January 1, 1892 - Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened. Over 20 million new arrivals to America were processed until its closing in 1954.

January 1, 1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia was founded as six former British colonies became six states with Edmund Barton as the first prime minister.

January 2, 1942 - During World War II in the Pacific, the Japanese captured the Philippines capital of Manila and the nearby air base at Cavite.

January 2, 1880 - Birthday - Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was born on a military base in Little Rock, Arkansas. He commanded Allied forces during World War II in the Pacific. In 1942, he uttered one of the most famous phrases of the war, "I shall return," when forced to leave the Philippines due to the unchecked Japanese advance. In 1950, after war broke out in Korea, he became commander of the United Nations forces. However, disagreements with President Harry Truman over war policy resulted in his dismissal by Truman in April 1951. MacArthur then appeared before Congress and announced his retirement, declaring, "Old soldiers never die - they just fade away."

January 4, 1974 - President Richard Nixon rejected subpoenas from the Senate Watergate Committee seeking audio tapes and related documents.

January 5, 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first female governor inaugurated in the U.S.

January 7, 1714 - A patent was issued for the first typewriter designed by British inventor Henry Mill "for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, as in writing."

January 10, 1878 - An Amendment granting women the right to vote was introduced in Congress by Senator A.A. Sargent of California. The amendment didn't pass until 1920, forty-two years later.

January 10, 1946 - The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place in London with delegates from 51 countries. The U.N. superseded its predecessor, the League of Nations.

January 15, 1973 - Golda Meir became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit the Pope.

January 16, 1979 - The Shah of Iran departed his country amid mass demonstrations and the revolt of Islamic fundamentalists led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Shah had ruled Iran since 1941 and had unsuccessfully attempted to westernize its culture.Birthday - Common Sense author Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was born in Thetford, England. His pamphlet, published in 1776, provided inspiration to undecided Americans that a new nation, independent from Britain, might eventually become "...an asylum for mankind!" He served in the Continental Army and observed the hardships of American troops fighting the world's most powerful army. He then published The Crisis series pamphlets which began by stating, "These are the times that try men's souls." He refused to accept the profits from his writings and wound up destitute after the Revolution.

January 19, 1983 - Former Gestapo official Klaus Barbie, known as the "Butcher of Lyon," was arrested in Bolivia, South America. He was responsible for deporting Jewish children from Lyon to Auschwitz where they were gassed. He also murdered French Resistance leader Jean Moulin and tortured others. He was exposed by Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, extradited in 1987, then convicted by the French and died while in prison.

January 19, 1824 - Birthday - Confederate Army General "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-1863) was born in Clarksburg, Virginia (as Thomas Jonathan Jackson). He was a West Point graduate who served in the Mexican War then resigned to teach at the Virginia Military Institute. He sided with the South and became a Brigadier General, earning his nickname at the first battle of Bull Run as his troops held firm while others wavered. "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall," a fellow general commented. He was shot in 1863 by a Confederate lookout who had mistaken him in the dark. "I have lost my right arm," lamented General Lee upon his death.

January 20, 1981 - Ronald Reagan became president of the United States at the age of 69, the oldest president to take office. During his inauguration celebrations, he announced that 52 American hostages that had been seized in the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, were being released after 444 days in captivity.

January 21, 1954 - The USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered submarine, was launched at Groton, Connecticut.

January 24, 1965 - Winston Churchill (1874-1965) died. He had been Britain 's wartime prime minister whose courageous leadership and defiant rhetoric had fortified the British during their long struggle against Hitler's Germany. "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat," he stated upon becoming prime minister at the beginning of the war. He called Hitler's Reich a "monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime." Following the war, he coined the term "Iron Curtain" to describe the barrier between areas in Eastern Europe under Soviet Russia's control and the free West.

January 26, 1994 - Romania became the first former Cold War foe to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

January 28, 1986 - The U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds into its flight, killing seven persons, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who was to be the first ordinary citizen in space.

Casale's Corner

Casale's Corner - Harry & Bess

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House. The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri.

His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there. When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year. After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale." Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise." As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference! I say dig him up and clone him!