In 2008, a special section of the New Paltz Rural Cemetery was designated for the internment of Veterans and their spouses through a partnership with Ulster County. Veterans are eligible for burial and a grave marker at no expense upon the request of next of kin. The Veteran must have served in the Armed Forces of the United States or the National Guard, received no less than a general discharge and been a resident of Ulster County.

In recent years, Mark Cozzupoli, Director of Veterans Services for Ulster County, has brought ‘Wreaths Across America’ to Ulster County as a way for the public to honor all of the Veterans at the Cemetery.

The event was started by Morrill and Karen Worcester, owners of the Worchester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, when one year they arranged to have some of their surplus wreaths laid at the graves of Veterans in Arlington National Cemetery. This has now grown to wreaths being brought to 3,400 locations, literally all across America. In each locale, Veterans are honored by those who attend the ceremony by placing a wreath upon a grave of someone they might not know, but whom they do not want to be forgotten.

Lloyd Police Chief James Janso has attended these ceremonies in New Paltz for many years. This year the ceremony holds a special meaning for him because his father Robert was laid to rest in the last row of the Ulster County Veterans section, up near the front of the cemetery. His father was born in 1934 and served in the Navy during the Korean War.

Janso said toward the end of his life his father was blind, “but we told him how beautiful it was and something that he would like. He always talked about being buried under an Oak tree and there is one right there. It was almost like it was God’s will.”

Janso said, “He never ‘saw’ my daughter Giovanna or my son James, but he would feel and talk to them but he couldn’t see them, only shadows. The good thing is that we were so close to him next door and he would play Santa Claus and talk to my kids on a walkie talkie.”

Janso said his father now lays, ‘in the best of company among all the other Veteran heroes.”