OCEAN CITY — Fittingly on Pearl Harbor Day, Ocean City officials this week approved a return next summer of the popular military banners honoring local active duty personnel on the Boardwalk, but not before proposing a new wrinkle to the program.
For each of the last several years, the Ocean City Elks Lodge 2645 has facilitated the Hometown Heroes program, which includes banners recognizing and honoring active duty military personnel who hail from Ocean City and Worcester County. The banners display the official military photo of the armed service personnel along with their names, ranks and branch of the U.S. armed services.
The banners are hung from light poles on the Boardwalk roughly from the pier building to 4th Street and have become increasingly popular in recent years. The Ocean City Elks Club and sponsoring citizens, fraternal organizations and local businesses pay for the banner designs and printing costs and the town’s only contribution is having the Public Works Department install them each May and take them down each September.
To qualify for the Military Banner program, the honoree has to be an active duty member of the U.S. Armed Forces and a resident of Worcester County, with priority given to active duty military personnel who reside in Ocean City. Last year, the program featured three Marines, two members of the Air Force, six from the Navy, eight from the Army and one from the National Guard.
On Monday, the Mayor and Council approved the return of the Military Banner program for 2016. At the outset of Monday’s meeting, Mayor and Acting City Manager Rick Meehan reminded his colleagues and those in attendance of the gravity of the date.
“Today is Pearl Harbor Day and I just want to make sure we all remember what happened on this date 74 years ago,” he said. “We need to remember the men and women who lost their lives. The very next day, the U.S. declared war on Japan and Germany declared war on our country.”
Meehan said after seven decades plus, Pearl Harbor Day passes with many not remembering its importance.
“Sometimes, we tend to forget what this day is all about and I think we need to take a moment to remember what a great country we have,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure the Town of Ocean City recognized that and did not let this day pass without remembering.”
When it came time to approve the military banners for 2016, Councilman Wayne Hartman suggested adding a new wrinkle to the program.
“When we did this last year, we discussed adding some of the local veterans that live here,” he said. “We’ve already had a discussion about Pearl Harbor, and there are many who served in World War II that live here and most won’t be with us much longer. I think it would be appropriate to honor them and this could be a way to do that.”
The club will take the recommendation under advisement.
