As November, National Veterans and Military Family’s month, comes to a close, we recognize Local 2343-Town of Cortlandt and its effort to highlight former member and veteran Leslie White.
Every year the Town of Cortlandt posts patriotic banners featuring local veterans. This year local 2343 decided that since many former and current members were veterans they should include the image of someone from the union on a banner. Local 2343 President Josh Dinardo has been a proud member of the union since 2005. When the idea of featuring a union veteran on a town banner came up during an executive board meeting everyone “loved it.” For Josh, whose own grandfather served in Korea, this was an important opportunity to publicly highlight the service and sacrifice of his union members. Josh proudly talks about a current union member and reservist who recently returned to work after a year of military service in Africa. After much discussion regarding who should be selected on the inaugural union member it was decided that former member Leslie White would be featured.
According to his daughter, Wendy Falgiano, Leslie White, was a proud veteran, a workplace mentor and an extraordinary father. Leslie was a very successful high school football player and was recruited to play ball by multiple colleges. However, he felt the greatest training and the best way to be of service was to enlist in the Marines during the Vietnam War. Leslie had a way of influencing everyone around him. Due to his enlistment, five other people among his family and friends also joined the military.
When he returned Leslie rarely talked about Vietnam. Back when Wendy was in high school, Vietnam was not spoken about and the stories of veterans from that time period were not told. Vietnam veterans went unacknowledged. One day, as a class project, Wendy decided to tell her father’s story. In preparation, Wendy spent time asking her father lots of questions about Vietnam and looking at photos together from his time overseas. Her classmates had lots of questions and when she came home from school Wendy was able to proudly share with her father that she received an A+ for her presentation. His story was finally able to be lovingly told by his daughter.
Wendy says her dad, Leslie, was always somebody you could “rely on, a protector, the strength of the family, liked by everyone and if you needed something was always there.” He was also a very hard worker. He worked for the Town of Cortlandt highway and sanitation department until his retirement. As a plow driver, he was always happy to mentor new workers and teach them how to plow properly and safely. Wendy’s father-in-law works for the Town of Cortlandt and says that town employees still talk about Leslie “all of the time”. His passing in 2015, was a tremendous loss for his family, his union and his community.
Wendy was deeply moved when she heard her father’s union brothers and sisters selected him to be featured on a Veterans banner. The banner was placed at the entrance of the cemetery where her father is buried. Every day Wendy drove by the banner with her father’s image on it and would say “good morning dad.” The family now has the banner and looks forward to putting it up every year. Wendy says this experience was “amazing” and is “so thankful” that her father was honored publicly by his union.
This month and every month, we honor the sacrifices of Leslie White and all of our courageous brothers and sisters who have dedicated their lives to serving our nation and to serving their communities.