The Annual Memorial Day ceremony will be held at Lycoming County Veterans Memorial Park, West Fourth Street, and Wahoo Drive, on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at 11:00 a.m.
The event is co-sponsored by the Lycoming County Veterans Memorial Park Commission. The Lycoming County Veterans Council, Inc. Tents will be provided, and the event will be held rain or shine.
The keynote speaker will be Medal of Honor Recipient Col. Jack H. Jacobs, US Army (Retired).
Jack Jacobs was born in Brooklyn, New York. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Rutgers University and entered the US Army in 1966 as a Second Lieutenant through the ROTC program. He served as a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division, Executive Officer of an infantry battalion in the 7th Infantry Division, and commanded the 4th Battalion 10th Infantry in Panama. A member of the US Military Academy faculty, Jacobs taught international relations and comparative politics, and he was a member of the National War College in Washington, DC.
He served in Vietnam twice as an advisor to Vietnamese Infantry Battalions, earning three Bronze Stars, two Silver Stars, and the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest combat decoration. Jacobs retired as a Colonel.
He was a founder and Chief Operating Officer of AutoFinance Group, Inc, one of the firms to pioneer the securitization of debt instruments; the firm subsequently sold to Key Bank. He was a Managing Director of Bankers Trust, where he ran foreign exchange options worldwide and was a partner in the institutional hedge fund business. Jacobs subsequently founded a similar business for Lehman Brothers and then retired again.
He is a principal of the Fitzroy Group. This firm specializes in residential real estate development in London and invests both for its own account and in joint ventures with other institutions. He is the Director of Veterans Advancement at the New York Film Academy. He serves on several charitable boards of directors and is Director Emeritus of the World War II Museum.
Jacobs is the Senior Fellow in the Department of Social Services at the US Military Academy and is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Rutgers. An on-air analyst for NBC News, he was a team member that produced the 2011 Murrow Award-winning Nightly News segment “Iraq: The Long Way Out.” Col. Jacobs is also the co-author of the memoir, If Not Now, When?, published by Penguin and winner of the Colby Award. His second work in non-fiction is Basic, released by St. Martin’s Press in 2012, and he is an Executive Producer of the series Ten Weeks, which airs on Roku.
Salladasburg will honor Memorial Day with its 2023 Salladasburg Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony. The parade will start at 11:00 a.m. on Memorial Day. Typical participants in the parade include patriotic floats or decorated vehicles, antique cars and tractors, kids on decorated bicycles, riding horses, Scout troops, Little League teams, and Military service members.
Those who want to participate in the parade should be in line on Dochter St. before 10:45 a.m. The parade will be led by the Jersey Shore Area High School Marching Band and will also include fire engines from both Jersey Shore fire companies.
Immediately following the parade, a ceremony will honor the local veterans. The ceremony will take place in the Salladasburg United Methodist Church Parking lot. Keith Barrows will sing the National Anthem. Pastor Cecily Eisley will be doing the invocation. Dr. Daniel Glunk will recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and then the roll call of the veterans will be read by Mayor Douglas Ellsworth, followed by taps and a 21-gun salute by the Jersey Shore Honor Guard.
A Veterans Tribute will be at Endless Mountains War Memorial Museum on Saturday, May 27th. The War Memorial Museum will hold a tribute and open house for all veterans. It will have one WWII Veteran (Charles Brooking) & two Vietnam Veterans (Bob Smith & Cary Rhodomoyer) speaking and sharing their War experiences with us.
There is no charge for the tribute, but donations will be accepted. The Memorial Museum is open for tours from 10 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. and after the speakers finish their presentations. Food and drink will be available. On Sunday, May 28th, at 1 p.m. (preview at 11:00 a.m.), there will be a fundraiser auction to help raise some funds to complete our building expansion & restoration project.
You can call the museum at 570-482-2610 or e-mail at craftj@epix.net for more info.
The museum has come a long way as they are preparing to finish the inside, get ready for the new displays, and put their military vehicles and howitzer inside to preserve them on display. They would like to thank all who have helped them so far, and now is a good time to come and see what they have accomplished so far.
They are also celebrating their 25th year of operation in honoring our great veterans and looking forward to many more ahead.
