Thursday, October 04, 2007

Red Hook VFW Post

The World War I Doughboy statue had been formerly located in a Park, but it had been vandalized. It was moved to this location at 325 Van Brunt Street. This is where I was getting information from the plaques as clues to addresses of veterans. I found this on a south brooklyn bulletin board posted by Joan Diamond:
"I had wanted to add that Patrick and Anna had 9 children. William also nicknamed Red worked in his father's bar and grill. After the Brooklyn Dodgers had lost a game to the Giants my Uncle William was teasing one of the customers, Robert Joyce a Post Office worker and one thing led to another and Joyce ended up fatally shooting Robert Krug in the head and my uncle in the stomach (july 1938). This information was included in a book titled BUMS (the #1 Baseball memory book) by Peter Golenbock in 1984. My other uncle joseph was killed in WW11 and the Joseph Diamond Post 1427 of the American Legion was named in his memory. My grandfather dies in 1941 and his wife Anna in 1961. Patrick, George and Neil have all passed away as well as Ann and Katherine , my two aunts. Elizabeth survives and still resides in Brooklyn. If anyone remembers any of the Diamonds I would love to hear your memories."

1 comment:

Joan Diamond said...

I came across your site and wanted to add a comment.
My uncle, Pvt. Joseph J. Diamond, was killed in action at Guadal Canal during WW11.
After the war the veterans got together and joined different posts throughout Brooklyn. They wanted their own post so they applied for a charter from the American Legion. They met the qualifications and were granted the charter.
All the neighborhood veterans wanted to honor my uncle and Jack Davern who was also killed in combat. They originally were going to name the post the "Diamond-Davern Post" but the name was too long. They decided on the Joseph J. Diamond Post because he was the first one killed. The post was located above my grandfather's bar, Diamond's Cafe, on 9th Street and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. After a few years they got enough money and bought a vacant synogogue that had been closed for a while a block away. As of 1982 the Post was still there. Every year they had a parade and an annual mass on the anniversary when the men were killed.
After doing some research I had found that the Post no longer exists and it is a synogogue again.
Joan Diamond