Tappan's Field of Honor to remember the fallen, firefighters. Each flag has a story

TAPPAN – Old Tappan Road in this sliver of southeast Rockland County gets more than its share of traffic. Cars head east from the Jersey line, past Andre Hill and Western Highway. They cross the bump at the railroad track (when trains permit) and turn on Kings Highway or Main Street or continue onto Washington Street by the firehouse — the old one and the larger one now rising next door.

Cars heading west, perhaps on a local shortcut from the bridge, make the opposite trek.

But whether they’re coming or going, local or not, for the next seven weeks, drivers will no doubt cast their eyes to a fluttering display on the lawn between the Manse and the Reformed Church of Tappan, two historic buildings in this historical hamlet where George Washington did, in fact, once lay his head.

Hundreds of flags — 256 of them, to be precise — have been arrayed on the green by members of the Volunteer Fire Association of Tappan, the Carl A. Schelin American Legion Post 1271, and the Reformed Church of Tappan.

It’s the third annual Field of Honor, and it will remain from Memorial Day through Independence Day and to Flag Day, dedicated to those who died in service to their nation, but also to first responders of all stripes: veterans and firefighters, police officers and nurses, teachers and caregivers.

Most won’t stop as they drive by, with somewhere else to be. If they take note at all, they’ll simply see a tidy cluster of large flags. But if they were to pull over, to linger on this Memorial Day or on any day until July 8 when the flags come down, they’d see a whole lot more.

Manny and 'Joker' and 'Hippy' — and Carol

Affixed to each flag is a tag with a name on it, placed by a loved one who sponsored it with a donation that helps to fund Tappan's Memorial Day parade and other events. And attached to each name is a story.

There's Manny and Yolanda Lopez, a fallen soldier and his Gold Star mom.

There's “Joker” and “Hippy” — George Domenici and Larry Aubut — Vietnam veterans who kept their friends laughing. “Hippy” was known to lighten hearts by donning Santa’s outfit for children with special needs. (He brought his own beard to the costume.)

There are two Steven Maushardts, father and son. One served in World War II, the other in Vietnam.

There are the five Dizzine brothers, who all served in World War II. One was a tail gunner, one was a sailor, the rest were in the Army. One was a prisoner of war who returned to Rockland and married a woman whose brothers had parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and met up behind the lines there. Their son, Pat Dizzine, would serve in Vietnam and earn the Purple Heart.

There's Richie DeZago, who had a rough childhood in Sparkill and went to war in Vietnam, returning to live the life of a police officer. This Memorial Day, the watchfires on the Piermont pier and atop Clausland Mountain will be lit in his honor.

There’s a tag and a flag for Carol L. Schelin (shuh-LEEN), who left a mark so profound that years after she died, this Field of Honor now rises in her honor each spring.

A visit upstate

Tappan's Field of Honor has its roots in Wellsville, an Allegany County village south of Rochester.

This is where the story introduces a second Carol Schelin — Carol Ricketts Schelin — who grew up in Allegany County and married Carol L. Schelin's brother, Bob, the former dean at St. Thomas Aquinas College.

The family would often decamp to western New York, where they'd see a field of flags placed by members of the American Legion at the Wellsville hospital. Families would pay $5 to put their name on a small flag to join the large display. The Schelins would sponsor flags for their loved ones.

"Isn't that nice?" Carol R. Schelin remembered Carol L. Schelin saying. "We've got a beautiful yard at our church. It would really look great to have flags there."

But it's one thing to suppose. Carol L. Schelin proposed. About 10 years ago, she went to the fire department and laid out a plan to sponsor flags on the church lawn.

Donald Hoover was there, and remembers Carol making the pitch. At Reformed Church of Tappan, he pastored both Carol Schelins and is chaplain to the fire department and the Legion post, which is named for Carl A. Schelin, Carol's father. He was wounded in the siege of Metz in World War II and lost an eye.

"Carol was one of our elders in the church and she was the brainchild behind this," Hoover said. "She really was trying to bring to the town the sense of patriotism that her parents had."

The plan didn't move forward when Carol pitched it. Then she developed pancreatic cancer. She died Sept. 1, 2016 at 68. But her life's lessons had planted the seeds for a field to come.

Helping a young family

"Carol was a renaissance-type woman," her sister-in-law said. She studied to be a nurse, but it didn't take, so she studied theater. She taught preschool in Piermont, earned a master's degree in education from Dominican College and then a law degree from Pace.

"She was an environmentalist early. She was a peacnik early. She was on the Clearwater Revival board for years and was the director of peacekeeping for the revival," her sister-in-law recalled.

Her "day job" was as an attorney for 32-BJ Legal Services in Lower Manhattan where, for more than 25 years, she focused on family law and specialized in adoption.

"I'd call her a children's rights attorney," Carol R. Schelin said. "She loved children." Her obituary recalled that she "enjoyed mentoring children, babysitting and organizing the neighborhood Easter egg hunt."

Before the cancer took hold, she met Mike and Tracy Holihan, who were starting a family a few doors down from the Schelin house on Lawrence Street in Tappan. They asked if Carol would watch their son, Connor, and daughter, Riley, while they were at work.

"She was so happy to help," Holihan said. "She said, 'I was hoping you'd ask me.' Carol basically raised our kids."

You don't forget that kind of person, a person who becomes part of your family. At least little Connor Holihan didn't.

"He woke up in the middle of the night one night, thinking about her," Holihan said. "We went to go see her at the gravestone. And my wife and I thought about what we could do, and we came up with: 'Let's live on what she wanted to do right here in Tappan.'"

Holihan revived Carol's Field of Honor idea and in 2022, it became a reality. That first year, there were about 300 flags. This year, the number dipped to 256. Holihan heads the committee with Walter Jackson of the Legion and Hoover, who put up his church's lawn. They hope to expand it to the rest of the county in years to come.

A family outing

Hoover, the pastor, said the Field of Honor draws people to his lawn.

"One of the things that really heartens me is when you see a full family, with parent, grandparent and grandkids going between the flags and they're looking for their their loved one, and they stop and take pictures in front of the flag," Hoover said. "It's really very moving to see the entire family, sometimes through four generations, right there in front of the flag, giving honor to the person."

Jackson, the Legion's representative on the chair committee, said the display is not like walking through a cemetery with small flags beside gravestones.

"The field, when you walk through this, it's a whole different feeling. You don't have that anyplace else," he said. "Except I just went through Gettysburg Cemetery, and you get that same feeling there."

There is something sensory about the Field of Honor. Walking through it, the breeze buffets the flags and it brushes them against you, as if in an embrace.

'You can never forget someone'

There is another Maushardt, not named Steven. Charlie Maushardt is president of the Nam Knights Motorcycle Club's Hudson Valley Chapter. He placed the flags for "Hippy" and "Joker" and another Nam Knight, Raymond Coffey. And for Manny Lopez and his Gold Star mother Yolanda. And for his own father and his brother.

“You can never forget someone,” said Maushardt. “That's the biggest thing in life. You could do a million great things, but if somebody forgets you, those million great things just go to the wayside.”

Maushardt will ride to Washington, D.C., to the Vietnam Memorial this weekend, but will be back in time for Tappan's Memorial Day Parade.

Events begin at 9:30 a.m., with a fireman’s memorial at the firehouse. The parade starts at 11 at the German Masonic Park on Western Highway, then comes down to the well-traveled Old Tappan Road and ends at the Tappan Memorial Triangle, across from the Field of Honor.

It's important to remember, Maushardt said.

“It's people like us that try to keep that alive and keep it rolling, no matter what it takes,” he said. “The veterans, the police officers, everybody that serves in some capacity, should be recognized and continue to be.”

Carol Schelin said her sister-in-law would be thrilled that the Field of Honor has taken root.

"Her calling was that she knew that life was beautiful and she was a believer in God," she said. "She was a servant who saw her job was to help people and to be a peacekeeper and to be a bringer-together."

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY Field of Honor remembers the fallen, first responders