HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Gold Star Battalion Beach Memorial

Town of Huntington, Suffolk County, New York

Marker Inscription

In memory and respect for one hundred twenty seven men of Huntington Township who joined the "Gold Star Battalion" of World War II.

The Story

During World War II, the Long Island town of Huntington sent scores of its young men into uniform, and this beachside memorial gathers 127 of their names under the banner of the "Gold Star Battalion." The gold star had by then become the nation's emblem of a family that lost a loved one in service, a tradition carried forward from the First World War. Set where the community gathers by the water, the monument turns an ordinary shoreline into a place of remembrance for a generation that answered the call from a single town.

Why it matters

It captures how the Second World War reached into every American hometown, binding a local community's grief and pride into the larger story of the nation's wartime sacrifice.

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Related events

  • ยท World War II

Themes & tags

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