Somers remembers and honors on Memorial Day

SOMERS, N.Y. - Scores of Somers folks of all ages gathered somberly under a brilliant blue spring sky on Memorial Day to honor and remember U.S. service members who’d made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

The ceremony took place at the historic Ivandell Cemetery on Route 202 following a parade from nearby Bailey Park.

Giving the invocation on Monday, May 26, at the was Rabbi Robert Weiner of Temple Beth Am of Northern Westchester. The benediction was given by Father Matthew Breslin of Saint Joseph Catholic Church.

Making the opening remarks and introducing the participants was organizer Gina Arena, who noted that among the fallen being honored was the town’s namesake, Lt. Richard Somers, a young naval officer from New Jersey who had died in the early 1800s during in the Tripolitan War. Thomas Jefferson was president at the time.

The town’s war memorial at Ivandell features a bronze bust of Somers.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Lance Corporal Roland Ciofrone, USMC, retired. The National Anthem was sung by the Somers Middle School Advanced Choir, which followed up with America the Beautiful

Town Supervisor Robert Scorrano was the keynote speaker. Sgt. Kevin O’Keefe, USMC, and Kate O’Keefe, chair of the Veterans Committee of the Town of Somers, also spoke.

Veterans Day, observed on Nov. 11, recognizes all those who have served in the U.S. military, living or dead, while Memorial Day specifically honors those who have died while serving in the military.

Kevin O’Keefe thought it was “very important” that children should know the difference between the two and be taught the significance of Memorial Day “in the schools, the library, the home.”

Saying that committee aims to “create more of a community for veterans,” Kate O’Keefe wanted to make sure that the vets there that day knew Somers supports them.

Some of those ways include installation of military banners around town and the staging of events such as a “poker run,” and trips such as forays to West Point football games. The other is a planned picnic as part of the town’s upcoming Independence Day celebrations.

Kate O’Keefe explained that the Lions Club, local firefighters, and the town’s historical society took over the organization of Veterans and Memorial Day activities because the VFW, the American Legion, and the Jewish War Veterans groups “basically dissolved because all the members were older.”

So the committee is actively looking for younger veterans to join up.

“We want you to be part of what’s going on in town; it’s so important,” she said.

O’Keefe then tackled a very painful topic – the high rate of suicides among veterans.

Less than 7,000 American lives were lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Between then and now, suicide has taken the lives of 160,000 veterans, she said.

“Let that sink in; that’s eight times to size of Somers’s population,” O’Keefe said, pointing to a frightening statistic: 20 to 25 veterans fall victim to “intentional” suicide each day while another 20 to 25 die due to drugs and alcohol.

The impact on their families is tragic and unmeasurable.

“They need our help so we are not honoring them on this day instead of Veterans Day,” O’Keefe urged.

Two Girl Scouts from Daisy Troop 2630, Molly Lombardo and Sienna Murphy, recited a poem.

Col. Tom Colella, USMC, retired, read “The Poet in Memoriam,” which was written in memory of Major Edward Jones, who died in the Civil War, by fellow solider and Somers resident Horace Marshall. Jones is buried at Ivandell. The poem is in the historical society’s archives.

Following the speeches were the placement of red, white, and blue floral tributes and the mournful playing of taps by bugler Matthew Settineri of Boy Scout Troop 376.

Scouts from Troops 228 and 376 handled the traditional raising and lowering of the American flag.

Scorrano's Remarks

“We stand together on this sacred ground, under the open sky of a free nation because others once stood in harm’s way and never came home,” Scorrano told the crowd while glancing at the flags waving atop the monument.

“Each one is more than just fabric. They are symbols of sacrifice, representing lives given to defend our liberty, families forever changed, and the quiet strength of a country that remembers,” he said.

Memorial Day, likewise, is much more. It’s not a day for barbecues or sales but a “day of solemn remembrance and enduring gratitude. It is a day when a nation pauses, not just in mourning, but in a purpose to say: ‘We remember. We honor. We will never forget’,” Scorrano said.

The men and women of the country’s armed forces being honored that day did not seek the “comfort of the spotlight, they answered a call not because it was easy, but because it was right,” he said.

“They went where we sent them, carried our flag into distant lands, and for a cause of liberty gave their lives,” he added, noting that they were “sons and daughters of every background: city kids, farm kids, immigrants, and patriots from generations past, all united by a belief that this country, this idea of America was worth everything.”

The folks gathered in Ivandell that morning weren’t there just to plant flags and leave flowers, but to “make a national promise that their sacrifices will never be forgotten and their legacy will forever guide us,” Scorrano said.

Quoting President John F. Kennedy, he said that as people express their gratitude they must never forget that the “highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.”

Fallen heroes “don’t need statues or speeches. What they need, what they deserve, is a nation that lives up to their example,” Scorrano said.

“We honor them when we teach our children about service before self. We honor them when we treat one another with dignity and compassion. We honor them when we fight, not only for our own freedoms, but for the freedoms of others. That is our unfinished work.”

Scorrano pointed out that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, “a conflict that took more than 58,000 American lives and defined a generation.”

One of those lives belonged to Somers’s Pvt. First Class Joseph Allen Marasco, who was 22 when he was killed in action on July 22, 1969 while fighting in South Vietnam

The “son of Somers” served in the 1st Cavalry Division as part of the 62nd Infantry Platoon Combat Tracker.

A "combat tracker" refers to a highly specialized military unit, often including both human and canine trackers, trained to follow and locate an enemy or missing personnel.

“The role required strength, skill, and enormous bravery,” Scorrano said.

Marasco’s memory came home even if he didn’t.

Scorrano also asked folks to remember how the Vietnam veterans who made it back alive were treated.

Too many returned “not to celebration but to silence, not to appreciation but to rejection,” he said, adding: “No parades, no thanks, just pain.”

“They came back to a divided nation. Our nation failed them in their homecoming” which meant they bore the weight of war when abroad and then “the burdens of abandonment” when home.

“The shame of that era belongs not to those who served but to a country that took took long to say thank you, too long to say you were seen, you were valued, you are home. Let’s be clear, that should never happen again,” Scorrano said, urging folks to promise that every veteran will “be treated with the dignity, respect, and gratitude they have earned.”

See more photos in the June 5 issue of The Somers Record.