Saugerties American Legion Lamouree-Hackett Post 72 turns 100 this year. It’ll be celebrating its centennial next week with a banquet, a parade and a musical evening.
The celebration starts with a centennial military dinner on Wednesday night, October 16, at 6:30 p.m. Music will be provided by the Woodstock Brass Quintet, said village trustee Vincent Buono. The guests of honor for the evening will be retired colonel Roger Donlon and Norma.Donlon. Roger Donlon was the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, and the first member of the Special Forces to receive this medal.
Dr. Mark D. Isaacs, pastor of Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Wurtemburg in Rhinebeck and an adjunct professor of economics at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, will speak..Another speaker will be Saugerties American Legion Post 72 historian Bill Payne. The event will also be the inaugural of the Colonel Roger H.C. Donlon Community Spirit Award. For information contact Vince Buono at 802-3836 or Kevin Pendergast at 706-8083.
On Saturday, October 19, the parade to celebrate the centennial is scheduled to step off at 2 p.m. from Cantine Field. The parade will feature music by the Saugerties Community Band, which will be on a float, and the Pipes and Drums of Catskill. Colonel Donlon and Ann Donlon will be the grand marshals.
Following the parade, the 77th New York Regimental Balladeers will perform at the American Legion Building on Partition Street, followed by the Paul Luke Band. The Smokin’ Pony will provide food, and the post’s museum will be open, Payne said. The Balladeers perform music from all periods of American history, going back to the music of the Revolutionary War.
On Sunday, October 20, American Legion Post 72 will host an open house. Payne’s group, Veterans in a New Field, will perform a mix of Civil War songs and songs from the World War I period, he said. Noted reenactor Maxine Getty will portray a World War I nurse. Following the performances the post museum will be open to visitors.
The two Saugerties World War I soldiers for whom the post is named, Adelbert Lamouree and Patrick Hackett, were killed in the very last days of World War I. Nobody knew when they were deployed that the war was nearly over, Payne said. The entry of the United States into the war was one reason for its end a year after, he said.
The date for the anniversary celebration is apt, Payne said. Both Lamouree and Hackett died in October 1918.