2015 New Bedford Veterans Day Parade

Organizers of New Bedford’s Veterans Day Parade today announced that nearly one dozen veterans’ organizations and seven different bands, including the award-winning New Bedford High School Whaler Marching Band and Dartmouth High School marching bands, as well as the Portuguese-American Band and the Senhor da Pedra Band, will march in the parade next Wednesday morning.

Parade organizers extend an invitation to all New Bedford area residents to attend New Bedford’s 2015 Veterans Day Parade on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. The 2015 New Bedford parade is presented by the City of New Bedford Veterans Advisory Board Veterans Day Parade Committee.

City Veteran’s Agent, Chris Gomes said the organizers are extending an open invitation to all area veterans to march in the New Bedford parade, whether they are a post member or not. “The American Legion Post 1, the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 499 and the Freetown V.F.W. welcome all veterans to march with their organization. We would rather have these veterans join us in the parade than feel as though they must watch from the sidelines,” said Gomes. Several local classic car owners have volunteered to assist those veterans who may otherwise be unable to participate in the parade.

Parade participants will gather at the intersection of Rockdale Avenue and Union Street (Buttonwood Park) at approximately 10:30 a.m. and the parade will step off at11:00 a.m. sharp.

The parade will march East on Union Street to Pleasant Street, then turn left onto Pleasant Street to the reviewing stand located in front of the New Bedford Main Library.

A Veterans’ Day service will be held at the reviewing stand at the conclusion of the parade and all participants and parade attendees are encouraged to attend. Seating will be reserved for elderly and disabled veterans near the reviewing stand.

Parade organizers have announced that New Bedford native and World War II Army Veteran, Calvin Siegal, will serve as the Grand Marshall of the 2015 parade.

About Calvin Siegal

Mr. Siegal graduated second in his class from New Bedford High School in June of 1942 and went on to attend Yale University for his freshman year until April 1943. He was inducted into the United States Army in June 1943. Siegal did his basic training in Alabama where he received infantry and scout training and then for three months studied engineering at CCNY. Early in 1944, Siegal joined the 75th Infantry Division and did maneuvers in Texas and Mississippi, after which the Division was sent to Kentucky. In October 1944, the Division was deployed to Swansea, Wales and on December 1, 1944 they landed in Le Havre, France –a city then completely destroyed and largely in rubble. Siegal’s regiment, the 290th Infantry was sent to France and Holland.

Siegal was in Holland at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge and he joined other soldiers in the Ardennes Region, in Belgium on the 16th-17th of December. On December 25th, Christmas Day, the winter weather was brutal and Siegal was at the top of a hill when he was wounded by machine gun fire. He was hit five times in the leg and right shoulder. Siegal was transported to a hospital in Liège (a facility started after WWI by a retired U.S. Naval officer) and was treated with penicillin and morphine. He later went by hospital train to Paris, was operated on there, and subsequently flown to England. It was 2-3 months before Siegal was able to walk again. He stayed in a U.S. hospital in England until April of 1945. Siegal arrived in New York by hospital ship on the day before President Franklin Deleano Roosevelt died. He went to Lovell General Hospital in Fort Devens where he was rehabilitated and ultimately discharged in December 1945 after 51 weeks of hospitalization. Siegal was a Private First Class. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Combat Infantry Badge for his service to our nation.

Mr. Siegal returned to Yale in January 1946, graduated in June 1948 and married Sue (from Baltimore) He then joined the family business, Calvin Clothing, and settled here in New Bedford. Calvin Clothing company merged with Palm Beach Corp. in 1968 and Siegal remained with the firm until 1986. After retiring, Mr. Siegal and his wife Sue spent five years boating and then returned to New Bedford and has remained active in several local non-profit organizations since. Mr. Siegal had an interesting and rewarding career in New Bedford and loves living here.

He remains an active member of the Jewish War Veterans Post 154.