At 98 years old, Frank L. Golon Sr. said he was thrilled to take part in Jersey City’s 2016 Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 12, watching from the grandstand in front of City Halls as bands, residents, public officials, students and others marched by honoring veterans.
“Not every place has a Veterans Day parade,” he said. “This is something special.”
Golon is a World War II veteran and said he fought in “General Patton’s Army,” referring to one of the most aggressive and highly-honored generals responsible for key victories in the European Theater of the war.
Born in 1918 in the Mountainview section of Wayne, Golon has lived at times in Fairview, Edgewater, Midland Park, Bergenfield, Whitehouse Station, and Union City.
“I lived near 43rd Street in Union City,” he said during a brief interview while watching the parade.
He said he worked in the automotive plant in Edgewater and the Ford Motor Plant in Mahwah after coming back from the war, and became a national union leader. He is credited with bringing the union to these Ford Motor plants.
“The Mahwah Plant was huge,” he recalled, a massive facility that help provide jobs to a region of the state largely devoid of manufacturing for a long time. Its closing in 1980 marked the end of a era. “It was a great place to work.”
He chuckled over the recent presidential election, and the negative campaigning conducted by the candidates of both major parties.
“That was us,” he said, recalling a day when he and another man ran to become vice president of the union. “We slandered each other all over the place. I was a great slanderer. Eventually they (the union members) threw us both out and elected someone else.”
At 98, he has a living memory of a century many people see as ancient history.
He became active in the Civil Rights movement and marched along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Alabama. He participated in the Selma to Montgomery Freedom March, which some claim was one of the greatest moments of the movement.
A published author, Golon recounts some of this history in his recently-published, fictional biography, recounting historic and well as very personal events in his life, such as the birth of his son the day before he went to war in Europe and later, that same son’s death in combat in Vietnam.
Golon may be the oldest first time writer to ever be published.
“I have two books published and I’ve got a third already written,” he said. “They are fiction. I had to write fiction. I couldn’t write everything I saw. Someone might sue me.”
His latest work, “Johnny Romanek: The Start of An Era,” was written over a nearly forty-year period, and is a fictional account of a N.J-based man named Johnny Romanek and his experience as a World War II veteran, N.J. union leader and civil rights advocate.
A great parade
The Grand Marshal of Jersey City’s second Veterans Day Parade was Tony Goodson, Vietnam veteran and Commander of the Samuel R. Shelton Post VFW 2294. Other designated honorees included Yolanda Amiker, Glen Flora, Phil Lore, John Scafidi, and John Trambley, as well as distinguished guests such as former U.S. Marine Chuck Wepner (aka “The Real Rocky”) and U.S. Army Medical Corps. Dr. Jack Smith.
While in the first half of the 1900s there were events that honored veterans around Memorial Day, research with the Jersey City Public Library and local historians found that before last year, never in Jersey City’s history was there a parade commemorating Veterans Day and that instead residents and veterans would attend parades in New York City, Newark, and Hoboken.
The parade began at 12 p.m. at Dickinson High School with a remembrance ceremony at the school’s Vietnam Memorial and a special dedication to a fallen soldier, U.S. Army Pvt. 2 Tysheena James. James, 21, was one of nine Army soldiers who died during a training accident in June at Owl Creek near Fort Hood, Texas.
The parade then proceeded down Newark Avenue to City Hall.
“Veterans Day is especially important to me because as a veteran myself I appreciate the challenges our veterans face both during service and after,” said Mayor Steven Fulop. “That’s why we have made a pledge to provide more services and resources for our veterans, including access to jobs, healthcare, social services, and affordable housing. We will salute our veterans during the parade, but we will also make policy and programs that will make a real difference in their lives when they return from service.”
The parade included a 21-gun salute by a collective group of veterans. A contingent of South Vietnamese soldiers who fought alongside the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War also marched in the parade.
A number of groups participated in the event this year, including Welcome Home Vets of NJ and Eight Flames of Hope in addition to the Snyder High School marching band, the Dickinson High School and McNair High School JROTCs, a motorcycle show by the Nam Knights Motorcycle Club, and a car show by the Latino Automotive Services at City Hall.
At the conclusion of the parade, Mayor Fulop dedicated a new veterans’ housing development located at 665 Ocean Ave. to former Councilman Jaime Vazquez, who passed away in October. The development at 665 Ocean Ave. will be known as The Honorable Jaime Vazquez Memorial Home for Veterans.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.