10TH DIVISION BAND PLAYS HERE Dean Of Oneonta WWII Vets, Drago Honored At Concert Gene Schmidt, organizer of this afternoon’s 10th Mountain Division Jazz Band concert, shakes hand with World War II veteran Tony Drago, Oneonta, after Drago was honored with a surprise mayoral proclamation preceding this afternoon’s performance in the SUNY Alumni Field House. At 97, Drago is among the city’s oldest surviving veterans. At right, soloist Sgt. Michelle Dykes, stationed Fort Drum near Watertown, sings while accompanied by…
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Gene Schmidt
10th Mountain Division Band Plays Free Show For Veterans by LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to AllOTSEGO.com ONEONTA Gene Schmidt, the father of Neahwa Park’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, believes you shouldn’t just honor our nation’s defenders on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. “We can’t honor our veterans enough,” he said. “We owe so much of what we have to what they did for us.” So now, Schmidt has arranged for the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Jazz Band to play a free…
Wall That Heals Arrives In County…
Vietnam ‘Wall That Heals’ Coming To Neahwa Park ONEONTA – Two years after Gene Schmidt raised the funds and installed a monument to Oneonta high school students who died in the Vietnam War, he’s bringing the “Wall That Heals” back to Otsego County. “Last year, Princeton had 10,000 people come to the Wall,” he said during the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting earlier tonight. “With everything we have going on Memorial Day, I’m sure that number will be eclipsed here.”…
$6,000 Raised For Monument To Oneonta’s Vietnam Fallen ONEONTA – The necessary $6,000 has been raised for a monument in memory of the nine Oneonta soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, OHS grad Gene Schmidt of Unadilla announced today. The plan, announced last fall, is to install and dedicate the monument this Memorial Day among the cluster of monuments at the end of Neahwa Park’s Veterans Memorial Walkway. It is being constructed by Bainbridge Monuments. Common Council’s finance committee will review…