Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards
General Category => Hackensack History => Topic started by: BLeafe on June 05, 2014, 09:05:11 AM
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(Note: today's game starts at 1pm on YES. Perhaps they'll show this on the pre-game show)
Decorated D-Day vet from Hackensack to be honored again
June 4, 2014, 10:26 PM Last updated: Wednesday, June 4, 2014, 11:00 PM
By JEFF ROBERTS
staff writer
The Record
By the time he turned 20, Lee D’Arminio had worked as a buttonhole operator in a Bergen County coat factory and a machinist for Wright Aeronautics. His star turn as a third baseman for the Comets would later earn him induction into the Hackensack High School Hall of Fame — despite playing only one full season because he also held down an after-school job.
Then came the draft — and Omaha Beach.
An ordinary young man began to do extraordinary things.
D’Arminio was a frightened kid, away from home for the first time, when he stormed the shores of Normandy, France, on the second day of the D-Day invasion. It was his first taste of action.
Soaked and weighed down by a heavy pack, the Army medic followed the lead of a sergeant onto the beachhead. When the sergeant dived for cover, so did Private D’Arminio.
He landed on a dead soldier.
Continue: http://www.northjersey.com/news/decorated-d-day-vet-from-hackensack-to-be-honored-again-1.1029023?page=all
Photo: Michael Karas/staff photographer
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Congratulations Mr. D'Arminio and thank you for your service!
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Didn't see anything on the Yankee broadcast today.
From Hackensack High School's "American Veterans - The Heroes of Hackensack" page:
http://veterans.hackensackschools.org/VeteranSubpages/Individual%20Veteran%20Sub%20Pages/Louis%20Lee%20D%27Arminio/Louis%20Lee%20D%27Arminio%20Index.html
Lots of local stories and pictures are there to click through.
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/06/world/europe/d-day-commemoration/
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All I could find about the ceremony was this paragraph buried in "Yankees Notes" in today's Record:
"D-DAY HERO HONORED: Lee D’Arminio of Hackensack was honored with other veterans of D-Day on the field prior to the game, a day before the 70th anniversary of the World War II battle on Omaha Beach. The 90-year-old D’Arminio was introduced and then greeted by [pitcher David] Robertson."
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The Record mentioned Mr. D'Arminio in their D-Day "Men of Valor" editorial in today's paper:
Lee D'Arminio, 90, grew up in Hackensack and still lives there today. He was a star high school baseball player and worked at a Bergen County coat factory and for Wright Aeronautics. Then it was his time to serve.
As an Army medic, he was part of the forces storming Normandy on the second day of action.
"The beach was like a cemetery. A lot of bodies," D'Arminio said.
Throughout his time in Europe he had to race through enemy fire to rescue fallen colleagues.
"You got to go drag a guy out, put him on a litter and get out of there," he said.
Eventually, D'Arminio returned home and went back to working and being part of his community by helping to run the local recreation center and Little League. Despite a chest full of medals, he didn't talk much about his accomplishments.
But his actions, here and in Europe, had an immense impact on people's lives. While the details can blur together for many veterans, the images and feelings of their experiences may never leave them.
We, too, can never forget the heroics of those men and their impact on the world 70 years ago.
The full editorial: http://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-editorials/men-of-valor-1.1030533
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Related article: http://jstandard.com/content/item/its_about_the_mission_says_d-day_veteran/30857
Hy Wagner of Hackensack, a member of the 747th Tank Battalion during World War II, often thinks about D-Day.