Over the last several weeks, more than 500 U.S. military veterans have been buried at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale and Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County without the customary ceremonial honors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are eight of their stories as we honor their service on Memorial Day:
Edwin L. Garrison, 94 — Army; Calverton National Cemetery
Edwin Garrison had written to his mother from England in the fall of 1944. The 18-year-old Army serviceman had heard World War II was coming to an end, and told her he would soon be home.
Within three months, Garrison found himself in Vianden, Luxembourg, at the Battle of the Bulge — Hilter’s last major offensive campaign on the Western Front.
“When we were youngsters, he never talked about the war,” said his daughter, Alice Garrison. “All we knew was that it was very cold and dark in those woods.”
Garrison — a father of four, the husband of Elaine, and a member of the 1255th Engineer Combat Battalion that liberated Vianden — died May 7. He was 94 years old.
Keith Atkins, 59 — Private, Marine Corps; Calverton National
Keith Atkins had walked proudly with his Marine Corps platoon at his graduation in 1979. He had just completed basic training in South Carolina, and Atkins, then 19, was in his formal dress blues featuring the Corps’ globe and anchor insignia.
“We all piled in the van and drove down there to see him,” said his sister, Nicole Atkins, 51, who traveled with her family from Long Island for the big day. “I was a little kid, but I remember him having really shiny shoes. I thought he looked so handsome.”
Atkins, 59, of Mr. Vernon, a father of four, stepfather to three, one of eight children and the husband of Adrienne Atkins, died May 11.
“He loved life,” Nicole said. “His last days were some of the happiest, and that (gave us) peace.”
Jack Conyers, 94 — Sergeant, Army Air Forces; Long Island National
Jack Conyers met his wife Nohora on a blind date four decades ago. A friend had set them up, and the pair — formerly married with children of their own — had not put much stock in finding love.
That all changed when Nohora saw Conyers — a tall, dark and handsome man with a smile that made her melt.
“Since the beginning, it was chemistry,” she said. “(It was there) until the end.”
Conyers, 94, of Valley Stream died April 19 from coronavirus. He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, the precursor to the Air Force, in Alaska during World War II.
“The virus took my man away from me,” said Nohora, 81. “He was my best friend. I miss him every minute. I feel him around me.”
Beverly Cobbs Jr., 96 — Staff Sergeant, Army; Calverton National
Beverly Cobbs Jr. sat with his son-in-law Barry Jackson on the Virginia Beach boardwalk about 20 years ago and told him about a time when he had to swerve out of enemy fire in the South Pacific.
“His entire unit was driving down the road. The vehicle in front of him got shot, the vehicle behind him got shot, and all that was left was him,” said Jackson, 69, a Vietnam vet who had exchanged war stories with his ‘Papasan’ — Vietnamese for ‘head of the family.’
“He saved the 10 people in his vehicle that day,” Jackson said of Cobbs — a World War II Army quartermaster sergeant from Charlottesville.
“He was amazing … a totally gregarious, social Southern gentleman.”
Cobbs, the husband of Geraldine, a father of three and one of six siblings, died April 16. He was 96 years old.
Alphonsus Apuzzo, 99 — Corporal, Army Air Forces; Long Island National
Ten days after he tied the knot on May 17, 1943, Alphonsus Apuzzo left Manhattan for England to join the 8th Air Force 100th Bomb Group.
Apuzzo, then 32, worked as a radar and radio operator on a B-17 bomber, flying 50 missions over Europe during World War II. When he returned to New York in 1945, he reunited with his wife, Anne, finished school at Fordham University and worked as a chemical engineer in the aviation industry.
Apuzzo, 99, a father of two from Uniondale, died May 12 — four months after the death of his spouse, and five days before their 77th wedding anniversary.
“He called out my mother’s name, and then he died,” said his son Keith Apuzzo. “He had no desire to live. He just kept saying, ‘I want to be with your mother.'”
Cleveland Jessup, 73 — Specialist Fifth Class, Army; Long Island National
Cleveland Jessup was drafted into the Army in 1966 as war raged in Vietnam.
At only 20 years old, he had left his home in rural North Carolina and trekked to Georgia before heading to Virginia, Washington and finally to Germany — a journey that changed the life of this small-town Southern youth.
“Coming from that part of the country at that time, it was a big deal for him,” said Jessup’s son, Kevin Jessup, 44. “He loved the entire thing — the traveling, seeing the world, the lessons that it taught him.”
Jessup, a father of five and husband to Joyce Jessup, died April 19 from coronavirus. He was 73 years old.
Stephen Patti, 93 — S1, Staff, Navy; Long Island National
Stephen Patti had watched his older brothers Paul and Sal head off to fight in World War II. At 17, he was too young to be drafted — but not too young to join.
“He had to have his parents sign him in,” said Patti’s son, Stephen Patti. “He wanted to go.”
Patti enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and sailed off to Normandy, France, as part of the D-Day invasion.
Patti, 93, a St. John’s graduate, father of three and the husband of Joyce, died April 19 of coronavirus at his home in Brooklyn.
“As a kid, I was proud that my father served,” his son said. “He believed in our rights, and he was willing to fight for that.”
Hyman Forte, 101 — Technician Fourth Grade, Army; Long Island National
Hyman Forte had lost the will to live after his wife of 78 years died in April.
He had married his sweetheart in Central Park before he left for World War II on his beloved’s birthday, Sept. 9, 1942. Forte had traveled to Fort Dix and later to Hawaii, where he worked as a cook serving up chow to U.S. troops.
He returned to his wife Mary after the war, and stayed with her until her last breath.
“He always used to call her ‘beauty.’ He’d say ‘that’s my gal,'” said Forte’s daughter, Monique Forte. “He just couldn’t live without her.”
Forte, of Harlem — a father of five best known for his collard greens, honey glazed ham hocks, sweet biscuits and tender deboned turkey — died May 11. He was 101 years old.
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