Ocean City Plans to Salute Military Heroes with Honorary Banners

After years of on-again, off-again discussions, Ocean City is finally getting closer to having a program that will honor military heroes with banners that would possibly be placed along the Boardwalk or in other locations in town.

Michael Allegretto, aide to Mayor Jay Gillian, told City Council at its meeting Thursday night that the city administration has been working out the details with the help of the local American Legion and VFW posts.

“We’re still kicking around the best way to do it,” Allegretto said in an interview after the meeting.

Gillian is expected to present plans for the program in about a month for Council’s review, Allegretto noted.

One key issue for city officials to decide is where to place the banners. Allegretto said the Boardwalk, Veterans Memorial Park and other locations in town will be considered as part of the city’s deliberations.

“I think every option is on the table,” he said.

He emphasized that the city wants to “do it right,” so it is taking great care to work out the details before they are publicly announced.

“Once, we do it, we can’t take the program back,” he said.

  

 Michael Allegretto, aide to Mayor Jay Gillian, tells City Council that the program is still being developed to have banners that will honor members of the military.
  

The city has been collaborating with representatives of American Legion Post 524 and VFW Post 6650 for their input on how to structure the program, Allegretto explained.

City officials have been discussing the program with American Legion and VFW officials, on and off, in the past several years in hopes of reaching consensus about the criteria for selecting military members who would be honored with a banner.

For instance, they have debated whether the program should be open to veterans who live or have lived in Ocean City – “Hometown Heroes” was one of the suggestions for the name of the program – or perhaps have other ties to the town.

In 2021, the city experimented with “Honor Banners” lining the Boardwalk during early discussions. There were five Honor Banners on the Boardwalk that included the images of military heroes that were relatives of City Councilmen Pete Madden, Keith Hartzell and Jody Levchuk and former Councilman Bob Barr.

At that time, city officials had hoped to make the banners part of a broader program called “Honoring Our Veterans.” It was supposed to be a way for local families to honor their loved ones who served in the military, but the program never really panned out.

The five banners hung from decorative lamp posts lining the Boardwalk. Allegretto said the banners were removed after they became faded over the years.

    Ocean City Councilman Keith Hartzell stands on the steps of City Hall in 2017 holding a photo that he took of one of the Hometown Heroes banners in Frackville, Pa.
  

Hartzell, the son of the late Paul Hartzell, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, originally brought the idea of military banners to Ocean City in 2014. He was inspired by military banners he saw in Frackville, Pa., when he was there on a business trip. The Frackville downtown was filled with military banners.

Hartzell went back to City Council at that time to see about starting a similar program in Ocean City to honor members of the military who have ties to the community. Some of the logistics that had to be sorted out were where the banners would go and who would be eligible and if they would be limited to only those who served in combat or for all who were members of the military.

In an interview after Thursday’s Council meeting, Hartzell said he was pleased to hear that the mayor will soon present plans for a banner program.

At the same time, he expressed his disappointment that Ocean City hasn’t moved quicker to start the program, especially since other neighboring communities, including Somers Point, now have banners hanging up to honor their hometown military heroes.

“People are getting to the point that they are asking, why do these other towns have them and we don’t?” Hartzell said.

Hartzell expressed confidence that once Ocean City does start its program, the number of requests from family members to have a banner in honor of a military loved one will “zoom.”

“If we put it out, the number of requests will be over the top,” he said.

    "Hometown Hero" banners have been going up in Somers Point to honor local military members.