Hempstead Town Remembers 100th Anniversary Of The End Of WWI

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the Town of Hempstead unveiled a new plaque outside of Town Hall, which also honors the history the town played in the country's strategic effort during the war.

Hempstead Town was home to several camps and airfields that housed, trained and deployed thousands of troops to the battlefields of Europe.

“It’s impossible to tell the story of our town without recognizing the tremendous affect that World War I had,” Supervisor Laura Gillen said. “The town’s history and that of the American war effort are intertwined.”

Mitchel Field and nearby Roosevelt Field were two of the largest airbases in the nation during WWI — the first war in which aircraft were used in combat. The First Air Squadron of the U.S. Army — the nation’s first military aviation unit — left for England from Mitchel Field during the war.

Camp Mills was a crowded city of tents with few amenities, where soldiers had to take precaution to avoid catching the Spanish flu during the epidemic of 1918. It was also the birthplace of the 42nd Infantry Division — the first of its kind, composed of National Guard regiments from 26 different states and known for its distinctive rainbow insignia.

More than four million American families sent their sons and daughters to serve during the war. Of that, over 100,000 soldiers would die in combat or from diseases, including approximately 86 from the Town of Hempstead.

In addition to the plaque, Gillen and the town officials planted Flanders Poppy seeds, which is the flower recognized as a symbol of respect and remembrance of those who died in World War I. The field poppy, hardy yet delicate, was a common part of the landscape on the Western Front during the war.

These the vibrant red flowers, improbably growing in the cracks of a war-torn battlefield, caught the eye of a soldier named John McCrae inspiring the world's most famous War Memorial Poem – “In Flanders Field.”

“It is our hope that these poppies will serve as a link and a reminder to our past,” Gillen said. “As well as to the great sacrifices made by those who we may have never met or known.”

Photo courtesy Town of Hempstead