God and Country Veterans Living History Event on Nov. 2
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Holocaust survivor Tibor Spitz will be one of nine speakers at this year’s God and Country Veterans Living History Event on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Best Western Plus, 503 Washington Ave.
The event begins on Saturday at 8:15 a.m. and runs through 4 p.m. An evening banquet will include all the keynote speakers as well as patriotic music by singer-songwriter Roseann Sureda and the Kingston High School choir. Restaurateur Frank Guido will be honored for his generosity to veterans.
The 90-year-old Kingston resident will share his story about how he and his family escaped deportation and certain death at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. He was 10 years old when his homeland of Czechoslovakia adopted laws mirroring those enacted by the Nazis that were meant to deprive the Jewish people of human, legal and property rights.
“I had to leave the school because it was forbidden to have an education beyond three years,” Spitz said. “When I was 12, we were told to learn a manual trade and prepare our tools and be deported to concentration camps.”
Through acquaintances, his parents learned about the horrors of the death camps and escaped to the forest, where they hid in a bunker designed by Spitz’s brother for seven months. All six members of their immediate family survived.
An accomplished artist and scientist, Spitz will be sharing his full story during the morning program at 11:35 in the hotel conference room. The rest of the lineup includes highly decorated combat veterans from across the country — many of them World War II vets.
Jack Holder, a U.S. Navy veteran who survived the Pearl Harbor attack and flew missions over both fronts during World War II, will be the first speaker at 8:20 a.m. Others scheduled include Robert Rosendahl, an Army veteran who survived the Bataan Death March; and World War II DDay veteran Tom Rice, 98, who was part of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division that parachuted into enemy territory into Normandy in June 1944.
Returning as guest speakers this year are Navy veteran Richard Dick Donald, who was involved in seven Pacific invasions during World War II and served aboard a destroyer during the Korean War; and Marine veteran Duayne Trowbridge, who fought at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War.
Scheduled to speak in the afternoon is retired Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams, who flew more than 220 missions in Korea and Vietnam. Often referred to as the “forgotten hero” of the Korean War, Williams singlehandedly shot down four Russian MIGs in an attack over North Korea in November 1952. It was an act of valor that was kept classified for 50 years.
Additional speakers will include Vietnam War veteran Norman “Butch” Petit, a squad leader and Tunnel Rat in Bravo Company;and Leo Kryszewski, a member of the Special Forces (Green Berets), who was one of the first “boots on the ground” in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The veterans, flying in from across the nation, will arrive the week before the event and speak to students at the M. Clifford Miller Middle School in Lake Katrine on Nov. 1 at 8:45 a.m. They will then be treated
to a free lunch at Woodstock Harley Davidson before heading for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park.
The God and Country Veterans Living History Event begins on Saturday at 8:15 a.m. and runs through 4 p.m. An evening banquet at the Best Western Plus
will include all the keynote speakers as well as patriotic music by singer-songwriter Roseann Sureda and the Kingston High School choir. Restaurateur Frank Guido will be honored for his generosity to veterans.
Advance tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for veterans and $15 for students. At the door, attendees will pay an extra $5. Dinner tickets are $40. For more information, visit godandcountryny.com or call (845) 629-2864.