The Sanatoga Post

POTTSTOWN PA – Commemorative services, in which Sanatoga’s Brig. Gen. Elmer S. Friedberg American Legion Post 244 again played a significant role, capped Pottstown’s successful Memorial Day 2011 parade through the borough Monday (May 30), ending at the Memorial Park monuments on West King Street.

The solemn ceremonies were sponsored and conducted by the Pottstown Joint Veterans Council, an umbrella organization involving many veterans’ representatives.

Dozens of small American flags (above), each of them topped by a star bearing the name of an honored veteran, created a fluttering carpet across a portion of the park fields as visitors arrived. Entering the park, they also passed a display of military and other vehicles (below), and joined a crowd of other participants in paying tribute to the fallen.

Pottstown’s High School marching band provided musical accompaniment (above) as state Rep. Tom Quigley (below), who represents Lower Pottsgrove, Limerick and Pottstown in the House, was among those offering remarks during the ceremony.

Sanatoga American Legion post members had a busy week preceding their participation in Monday’s tribute, according to Adjutant Billy Worrell.

• On Saturday (May 21), they installed graveside flags in Pottstown’s Highland Memorial Park Cemetery;
• Last Sunday (May 22), they were among those helping to recognize a North Coventry resident and Army assault team leader in Iraq who received an award at the township’s Big Woods Festival;
• On Wednesday (May 25) they welcomed a U.S. Army soldier home to Royersford following a tour of duty in Afghanistan; and
• On Friday (May 27) they turned out in force to enjoy the annual veterans services conducted by students at St. Mary’s School in Schwenksville.

Photos for The Post by Aimee M. Herbert, Aimee Marie Photography

ITS ACTUAL ANNIVERSARY IS MAY 31, 1931 – For accuracy’s sake, that’s the day Sanatoga PA’s historic Sunnybrook Ballroom first opened to the public, according to its website, from which the above aerial photo of the large ballroom building and its adjacent pool was taken. For practical purposes, however, most Sunnybook supporters consider the entire Memorial Day weekend as one long Sunnybrook anniversary. The first band to play at the ballroom, on Memorial Day 1931, reportedly was Joe LaFrance and his Bosch Radio Band, advertised as “one of the finest in the country”.

Photo from Sunnybrook Ballroom

POTTSTOWN PA – The official federal holiday is still eight weeks away, but veterans’ groups in the greater Pottstown PA area have been planning for months to make the 2011 edition of the borough’s Memorial Day parade one of the biggest ever assembled.

Veterans on the march during the 2010 parade

The Pottstown Joint Veterans Council, an umbrella organization involving many veterans’ representatives, recently invited all former members of the U.S. Armed Forces it could contact to join the parade, scheduled to begin May 30 (2011; Monday) at 10 a.m. from High and Adams streets, near the Goodwill Fire Company.

Participants will render “a great service to the memory of our fallen veterans and to our community,” parade Coordinator Terry Foulke wrote.

Any veteran of any American military branch of service can march in the parade, and no uniform is required. Participants also are not required to be members of, or join, any of the area’s organizations. “Just show up and join the ranks with other veterans at the head of the parade,” advised Billy Worrell, adjutant of Sanatoga’s Brig. Gen. Elmer S. Friedberg American Legion Post 244.

Although no registration is required, Foulke would like to hear from potential marchers by no later than April 30 (Saturday). That will allow him and his volunteers “to finalize our plans.” He recognizes some groups may bring not only marchers but vehicles, floats and trailers too; they are asked to contact the council with details.

“We are looking forward  … to put together the most successful Memorial Day Parade to date,” Foulke wrote.

Foulke hopes veterans start gathering near Goodwill at about 9 a.m. on Memorial Day, and find him or other parade representatives for their assignment. He noted, too, there will be no rain date for the parade; in case of inclement weather, instructions regarding it will be broadcast by radio station WPAZ-AM 1370 as early as 6 a.m., he said.

Memorial services in the borough’s Memorial Park, West King Street, will immediately follow the parade and last about an hour, Foulke added. All participants and visitors are invited to attend them as well; the services will be held indoors in case of rain.

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Flags flutter in the breeze during Sunday's Memorial Day program.

Pottsgroves' American Legion Honor Guardsman Chuck Kropp.

LIMERICK PA – Chuck Kropp seems to never tire of his duty.

Kropp, a member of the honor guard of the Pottsgroves’ American Legion Post 244, stood at rest Sunday afternoon (May 17, 2009) just beyond the Veterans’ Memorial in the Limerick Garden of Memories. He held a trio of rifles with his left hand, rifles with which he and his firing squad colleagues would pay homage to local service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.

Kropp smiled and joked in conversation with a passer-by. But minutes later, during a Memorial Day ceremony annually sponsored by the cemetery at 44 Swamp Pike, his face would grow as somber and serious as the tasks he was called upon to perform.

Honor Guard duty can take a toll on its participants, Kropp and others will tell you.

Inscription at the memorial.

They regularly practice for hours – even those like Kropp, who have served for years on the detail – to ensure each of their movements is crisp, clean, and militarily professional. Then, no matter what the weather or conditions, they stand for hours more at funerals and observances like that in Limerick, to ensure that no serviceman or woman is ever forgotten.

The Pottsgroves’ American Legion contingent, recently re-named in honor of Pottstown Brigadier General Elmer S. Friedberg, was one of several service organizations joining the ceremony in Limerick. Also represented were  Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 780, American Legion Post 47, Marine Corps League Detachment 450, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 565, Disabled Veterans of America Chapter 93, the AMVETS, and Chapter PA-2 of the Women Marines’ Association.

The modestly-attended event featured  an invocation and benediction by Pastor Dan Peters of the Limerick Chapel, an address by Capt. Robert Boyce USN, a wreath-laying by members of the Women’s Auxiliary, and several songs played by the Limerick Brass. Members of the Limerick (PA) Township Board of Supervisors represented the municipality.

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