Meet this year’s Veterans Day grand marshal

The Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches will be sponsoring their fifth annual Veterans Day parade in East Moriches on Sunday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m.

After a brief observance at the Eagle, which is located at the corner of Adelaide Avenue and Montauk Highway, the parade will continue along Montauk Highway to the Soldiers and Sailors Park for the Veterans Day ceremony.

This year, the American Legion Post 1545, of Eastport, nominated, and the chamber directors selected Charles Wohr, of East Moriches, to be this year’s Veterans Day parade grand marshal.

Wohr graduated from Farmingdale High School in 1948 and two months later, he joined the United States Air Force. In 1949, he was assigned to Brookely AFB in Alabama, where he completed his training to become an aircraft and engine mechanic. He began work on the C-54 aircraft and in November of 1949, he was assigned to Wheelus AB in Tripoli, Libya.

Following the Libya assignment in early 1951, Wohr was sent to Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas, to maintain and fly on C-47s as flight engineer. A temporary assignment to Kelly AFB in Texas followed, and then it was on to McChord AFB in Tacoma, Wash., and the newly introduced C-124 cargo aircraft as flight engineer.  He flew missions in support of nuclear weapons testing on the Bikini Island Atoll and also a few missions to South Korea during the war.

After an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1952, Wohr returned to Long Island taking a job with Grumman on the F9F assembly line.  In late 1953, he left Grumman and took a position with Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, Calif., working on A-7 aircraft.  He enrolled in the Electronics Institute and passed in 1955 with a communications license and a radar endorsement.

This led to a job installing and aligning the F-4D fire control radar system.  It then led to a position in England, supporting the new contract for intermediate range ballistic missiles, which took him all over eastern England and up into Scotland, where he met and married his wife of now 65 years, Jean Wohr.

Shortly after, he returned to the U.S., working for Sperry Inc.  He worked on the installation and operation of long-range search radars, including the one at Montauk. 

He moved his growing family to Springs, East Hampton, in 1962, when he took a position with the FAA Montauk facility.  He then worked at LaGuardia Airport, providing support and maintenance on the FAA tower until being reassigned to the radar facility in Islip.

Charlie and Jean purchased a property in Newport Beach, East Moriches, in 1974, and built the house they still live in today. They have five children, 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren, with another due in February. Charles Jr. and Warren both served full careers in the USAF as well. All five children have become successful in their own right.

Wohr, being a longtime member of the Eastport American Legion Post 1545, was adjutant for eight years and the commander from 1995 to 1996.

Upon retirement, he became a volunteer driver (1995-2015) for the DAV, a vital service for veterans providing transportation to and from the VA Medical Center in Northport.

“It is a great honor to have Charlie represent our veterans in this year’s parade,” the chamber directors said of their selection.