OCEAN CITY — Memorial Day brings everyone in America together, said Alan Shapiro, a World War II veteran honored Monday.

“It is something that is sometimes lost on us,” Shapiro said, addressing hundreds of people who gathered at Veterans Memorial Park for the annual observance.

Now 100, Shapiro flew a C-47 military plane during the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

While much of the weekend was focused on beaches, the economy or whether teenagers would be a problem , at that moment, under brilliant sunshine, those crowded around the city’s memorials remembered those lost in combat and honored those who served and came home.

That included a presentation for Gold Star mothers, those who have had children killed in action, as well as a reading of names of city residents who were killed in wars. Mike Morrissey, commander of VFW Post 6650, described the Gold Star Mothers as a group of American royalty, but a group no one would ever want to join because the cost of membership is too high.

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A chair was dedicated in the park next to a memorial wall in honor of Gold Star families.

Shapiro received a warm welcome from the crowd, and a series of recognitions, including a resolution from City Council, proclamations from state and county representatives and remarks from Mayor Jay Gillian.

“I should have brought my parking ticket,” Shapiro said.

He described the unity of purpose and effort he experienced in training and service in what was then the U.S. Army Air Corps, with members from around the country.

“In my group, we had a kid from Oklahoma, a kid from Boston, a kid from South Carolina,” he said. “We had a kid from Philadelphia. That was me.”

Shapiro still lives in Philadelphia and is a part-time resident of Ocean City. After the war, Gillian said, he raised seven children and launched a successful business.

Shapiro got his wings as a fighter pilot, but at that point, there was not as much need for fighter planes, and he entered training as a combat glider pilot, an extremely dangerous job even by wartime standards.

He ended up flying a Douglas C-47, a military transport he described as the workhorse of the war, nicknamed the “gooney bird” by allied troops. He carried Airborne paratroopers behind enemy lines for the D-day invasion, Gillian recounted.

Last year, Shapiro returned to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Europe. On Monday, he described the welcome he and other veterans received, and a chance to go up in a C-47 with a group. He said he was invited into the cockpit, sat in the co-pilot’s chair and was surprised when the pilot got up and let him fly over the beaches of Normandy.

“It’s your aircraft,” Shapiro recounted the pilot saying. Shapiro plans to return to Europe soon for the 81st anniversary of D-day.

Elizabeth Zaneri, of Medford, Burlington County, was also present at the Ocean City ceremony. Lisa Brunner, of the Gold Star Mothers Department of New Jersey, said Zaneri was the oldest Gold Star mother in the New Jersey organization.

Her son, Staff Sgt. Phillip Zaneri, died in 1995. Memorials in his honor describe him as serving in U.S. Air Force covert operations.

“You know the band of brothers? We were the band of sisters,” Zaneri said after the service.

Brunner described Memorial Day as a sacred day of remembrance.

“It is with a heavy yet proud heart that we stand before you as Gold Star mothers, representing the countless mothers who carry the profound loss of a son or daughter who served in the United States armed forces,” Brunner said.

Bob Marzulli, commander of American Legion Post 524, and Jim Zbikowski, a VFW member, read the names of people from Ocean City who died in the line of duty in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and other conflicts. John Kocher and Clark Morley, members of the American Legion and the VFW, respectively, placed a wreath at the memorial to all wars.

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