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Vets plans Forest Hills memorial parade

By Jennifer Warren

In 1951, Louis Near of Ozone Park was 22 when he left home to join the 424th Field Artillery in Kumhwa, Korea, north of the 30th Parallel. His nickname was “Souvenir.”

“I was always looking for souvenirs,” he said. His friends had teased him that he was forever picking up tokens and keepsakes. But Near was the one to remember.

“The first fellow that got killed was on Christmas Day in 1951. That sort of sticks in my mind. Eddie Phillpot — he got killed by recoil,” Near said.

Fifty years later Near is again responsible for remembering. A member of the American Legion and this year’s coordinator of the Queens County Memorial Parade in Forest Hills, Near is charged with organizing one of the borough’s largest Memorial Day parades.

This year’s parade was scheduled to begin Sunday at noon at the American Legion Post at 107-15 Metropolitan Ave. The 25-year-old parade will feature nine bands, including the Third Army Fife and Drum Corps from Washington, D.C., the Police Department Band, the All High School Band, the Francis Lewis High School Band and several others.

Starting at the American Legion Post, the parade will travel along Woodhaven Boulevard concluding with a ceremony at Remsen Park at the corner of Trotting Course Land and Woodhaven Boulevard.

The ceremony will be attended by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and 80 sailors from the USS Barry Destroyer and the USS Shreveport — docked in town for Fleet Week.

Also honored during the ceremony will be two Gold Star Mothers, Emma Bosch and Florence Noonan, both of Long Island City, who lost their sons to wars.

Bosch’s son, Edward Ronald Bosch, was serving as a Marine when he was killed in Korea. For several years, Bosch has been an honored guest at the parade.

“Every year they have me in their parade as an honored guest. It’s an honor to my boy and that’s why I go. It makes me feel better. Anyone who shows any honor to my boy, I appreciate,” Bosch said.

American Legion’s Near began working on the memorial as a tribute to his father, a World War I veteran, he said. It was also a way to honor the soldiers he fought with in Korea.

But over the years attendance at the parade and observance of the holiday in general has lagged, he said.

“There’s not enough interest. People today don’t know what Memorial Day is really about except to go to the store and go shopping,” he said.

The legion has made a concerted effort to involve young people in the Memorial Day event, inviting school bands and Boy and Girl Scout troops to participate. Near thinks younger generations need to be better educated in American history and America’s wars.

“We don’t want to glorify war, but they do happen,” Near said. “And there have to be people that go to them.”

Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.