Club members turn out for Taps ceremony honoring Club's WWII veterans
Rainy skies did not keep members of the National Press Club and its affiliated American Legion Post 20 from honoring the Club's World War II veterans on Wednesday, March 6.
Each day at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, "Taps" sounds at the National World War I Memorial in memory of America's war heroes. On March 6, the "Taps" ceremony was dedicated to the World War II veterans of Post 20 and the Press Club.
Attendees included Post 20 Commander Tom Young, former Post 20 Commander Jim Noone, and Post 20 Finance Officer Myron Belkind, along with Post 20 member Brian Zimmer. NPC member Elissa Free attended to honor her father, James Free, a long-time NPC member who served with the Navy in the Pacific during WWII. He retired as a captain in the Navy Reserve. NPC member Glenn Marcus participated in memory of his father, Sydney Marcus, who as an Army captain helped direct the flow of personnel and vehicles on Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion.
The long list of Press Club members who served in World War II includes former NPC President John Cosgrove, who survived eight kamikaze attacks against his destroyer escort off Okinawa in 1945. Cosgrove served several terms as commander of Post 20.
The list also includes Sarah McClendon, another Post 20 commander, who enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and worked as a lieutenant in the public relations office of the Army Surgeon General.
Former NPC President Frank Holeman served as an Army counter-intelligence staff sergeant in the Pacific during World War II. He was among the first U.S. occupation soldiers to land in Honshu in 1945.
The Doughboy Foundation runs the Daily Taps program and supplies the bugler for the event. The bugler during Wednesday's "Taps" was JoAnn Lamolino, who plays trumpet with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra in Honolulu. She appeared in the uniform of the "Hello Girls," part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War I. The Hello Girls ran telephone switchboards in Europe and helped provide an efficient flow of critical wartime communication.
A video of the March 6 "Taps" event can be viewed at this link.
American Legion Post 20 was founded more than a century ago at the urging of famed WWI General John J. Pershing, who was an associate member of the National Press Club at the time.