Veterans Day ceremony honors WWII vets at assisted living center

William Meunier, 97, of Farmingdale, remembered growing up in Brooklyn and watching each of his friends, one by one, get called to World War II.

Meunier enlisted in the Army at 17 and waited five months for deployment as the war in Germany was coming to an end. While other veterans in Europe were coming home, he was called to help man the occupation of Germany.

“Most of the World War II veterans are no longer here,” Meunier said during a Veterans Day ceremony on Friday at The Bristal at Bethpage assisted living center. “I don’t know at my age, why I’m still here. I’m not too fond of what’s happening to the country right now. It doesn’t have the same patriotic feeling of what we felt at that time. If we were needed, you were going to volunteer and do your part.”

Meunier was one of 16 veterans who live at The Bristal who were honored by the center and Boy Scout Troop 423 in Plainview and Old Bethpage. A dozen Scouts, joined by their Scout masters, each read proclamations to the veterans listing their branch of the military and thanking them for their service.

 Zachary Rosenberg, 17, of Plainview, a senior patrol leader with the troop, said he was happy to meet the veterans and hear their stories.

“I really enjoy honoring our veterans and it was great to honor their service because they gave so much to our country,” Rosenberg said. “It was nice to learn their history and compared to history books in school, this was first-person accounts about what they went through.”

Rosenberg said one of the residents was honoring his brother, who was killed in World War II.

Sidney Baron, 93, formerly of Jericho, held a framed photo of his brother, Harry Baron, accompanied by a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and an Infantry Badge he received after he was killed.

He said he was 14 when his 20-year-old brother died Nov. 11, 1944, after stepping on a land mine in France. As a surviving son, Sidney Baron said was exempt from military service to take care of his mother.

“My whole life was trying to emulate him. We take for granted everything he missed at the age of 20. It was heartbreaking for me,” Baron said. “It’s very important people don’t forget what these men did to protect us. I hope people remember what they did in all the wars we were in."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.