{"id":147959,"date":"2026-02-28T00:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147959\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:29:08","slug":"fort-hamilton-salutes-usos-85th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147959\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Hamilton salutes USO\u2019s 85th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USO (United Service Organizations Inc.) was founded in New York on Feb. 4, 1941 by Mary Ingraham. It reportedly brought together\u00a0six civilian organizations: the Salvation\u00a0Army, YMCA, YWCA, National Catholic Community Service, National Travelers Aid Association and the National Jewish Welfare Board.\u00a0One\u00a0of the first USO Canteen Centers opened in July 1942 in a former Bay Ridge restaurant on the corner across\u00a0Fourth Avenue from the Fort Hamilton Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dedicating the General Colin Powell USO Center at Fort Hamilton.
U.S. Army Photos<\/p>\n

Much later a new USO Center was dedicated at 237 Grimes Road at the Fort Hamilton Army Base. On Nov.\u00a020, 2000, the Fort Hamilton USO Center\u00a0 was named in honor of the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin L. Powell (Army retired).<\/p>\n

\"\"Col. Melissa Cantwell, USO official Janet Morse and Command Sgt. Major Eric Riding.
U.S. Army photo by Mark Getman<\/p>\n

U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hamilton Commander Col.\u00a0Melissa Cantwell, Garrison Command Sgt. Maj.\u00a0Eric Riding and soldiers assigned to the NYC Recruiting Battalion at Fort Hamilton celebrated the USO\u2019s 85th birthday on Feb. 4 at the USO Center with\u00a0Janet Morse, area operations specialist with USO Greater New York.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A new USO Center at the MEPS building at Fort Hamilton.
Photo by USO New York<\/p>\n

\"\"Col. Melissa Cantwell, USO official Janet Morse and Command Sgt. Major Eric Riding.
U.S. Army photo by Mark Getman<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

On Sunday evening, Feb. 14, the Brooklyn St. Patrick\u2019s Parade Committee\u00a0held its 51st annual dinner dance in\u00a0the auditorium of St. Patrick\u2019s Catholic Academy, Fourth Avenue and 97th Street.<\/p>\n

\"\"Last year\u2019s Grand Marshal Marty Cottingham congratulates Magee Hickey.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Canny Brothers Band on stage.<\/p>\n

The popular Canny Bros.\u00a0Band pumped out a nice mix of Irish tunes from the auditorium stage. And the Clann Eireann\u00a0Pipe and Drums Corps performed as a musical honor guard as 2026 Parade Grand Marshal Magee Hickey and her aides passed from the back of the auditorium, through the ranks of the pipers, front and center to have their parade sashes pinned on by Parade Vice Chairman\u00a0Mary Hogan. Michelle Brennan-Conlon\u00a0is the parade chairman.<\/p>\n

\"\"Parade Grand Marshal Magee Hickey and her aides.
Eagle Urban Media\/photos by Ted General<\/p>\n

Hickey was born in Park Slope and is a news\u00a0reporter\u00a0for PIX11.<\/p>\n

Her aides are\u00a0Mark Barrett,\u00a0Neil Patrick Callaghan,\u00a0William B. Cullen, Jr.;\u00a0Jim\u00a0Donovan,\u00a0Maureen Shaffer Edison,\u00a0Tara Hodgens,\u00a0John Patrick McGoldrick, Francis J. Sheridan, Jr.\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Zwosta.<\/p>\n

\"\"Irish tenor John Houlihan sang the American and Irish national anthems.<\/p>\n

\"\"Magee Hickey with Parade Chair Michelle Brennan-Conlon and Mike Conlon. <\/p>\n

Father\u00a0Larry Ryan, the parade chaplain and pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, gave the invocation and Irish tenor\u00a0John\u00a0Houlihan\u00a0sang Ireland\u2019s national anthem, \u201cAmhran na bhFiann\u201d (\u201cThe Soldier\u2019s Song\u201d), and \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.\u201d\u00a0Michael Conlon, a former Irish broadcaster and a longtime member of the parade committee, announced brief bios of each parade honoree as they walked to the front of the auditorium.<\/p>\n

\"\"Irish tenor John Houlihan sang the American and Irish national anthems.<\/p>\n

\"\"Magee Hickey and her husband Rick.<\/p>\n

***
The Society of Old Brooklynites, in its efforts to help promote the 250th Anniversary\u00a0of America, will hold its Wednesday, March\u00a04 meeting at 6 p.m. at the New York Harbor Defense Museum, where members will tour the museum\u2019s Brooklyn Battle Exhibition, other exhibits and hear a presentation by museum executive\u00a0director\u00a0and Curator\u00a0Justin Batt. Dr.\u00a0Fred Monderson\u00a0is the Society\u2019s president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USO (United Service Organizations Inc.) was founded in New York on Feb. 4, 1941 by Mary Ingraham.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-147959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}