By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
When it came James Anguili’s turn to sound off on his dates of military service at Saturday’s “Salute to Veterans” breakfast, he looked across the table at his wife, Kathy.
Some of the veterans who had preceded Mr. Anguili had said a word of remembrance for a relative who had served and fallen.
But when Mr. Anguili took the microphone, he said a word for his wife’s first husband, the deceased Steve Klastava, with whom Mr. Anguili had served —unknowingly — in Vietnam at the same time.
The words touched Mrs. Anguili, who reached across the table for her husband and started to tear up.
The “roll call of veterans” is the most special part of Hillsborough’s Memorial Day observance. It comes after a breakfast, words by politicians and songs from the high school choral students. It gives proud veterans a chance to recite squadron and battalions, to salute dear ones who never came back from war and proudly describe dates and places of service.
It turned into something special for the Anguilis, who have been married for five years.
Mrs. Anguili knew she had found someone special to replace her first mate.
She said she knew for certain when Mr. Anguili went to the garage one day and returned with a red smoking jacket he had bought while in Vietnam.
She was stunned. It was the same style and color as the one her previous husband had bought in Vietnam, too. And it was being “uncovered,” so to speak, on the exact day of the anniversary of her first marriage.
“It was like a sign,” she said, “that I had his approval.”
More than 100 people attended the breakfast inside the municipal hall prior to the annual Memorial Day parade later that morning.
Congressman Leonard Lance attended to repeat what he has expressed at previous Hillsborough breakfasts here — that Hillsborough was at the top of the list of all 75 municipalities he serves as represents in Congress when it comes to honoring veterans on Memorial Day.
Mayor Frank DelCore welcomed the crowd by remembering his family trip to the beaches of Normandy last summer. As he stood on the beach, looking at the cliffs immortalized in film and story as the site where soldiers, driven by love of country and freedom, reached pinnacles of selfishness and bravery.
At the Normandy cemetery, he said he felt pride, gratitude, honor, sadness while standing among the perfectly aligned gravestones.
“I’ll never forget that trip,” he said, but especially so on a day put aside to “commemorate fallen heroes and to remember the valor of others.”
After the breakfast, many of the veterans boarded buses to muster once again, this time leading the line of march down New Amwell Road and Beekman Lane, while neighbors and fellow residents applauded and waved flags.
At the centerpiece of the parade was a car carry the parade grand marshal, township resident and retired Lt. Col Fred Quick. At remarks following the parade, he reminded the crowd they were there to honor those who have fallen and others who have served with sacrifice, courage, pride, dedication and integrity.
He remembered the many soldiers who never returned and have since been lost to time. He cited numbers of the thousands of those missing in action in many wars and recalled he had recently attended gravesite services for the closest friend he had had in the Air Force, whose remains — a molar — had been found in a Vietnam forest after more than 45 years.
