Veterans remain in hearts of Covered Bridge JWV
BY DICK METZGAR
Staff Writer

Members of Covered Bridge Post No. 536, Jewish War Veterans, Manalapan, thank Andrea Mesh for her support of their monthly visits to veterans who live at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home, Edison.

MANALAPAN — The band of brothers mentality that was so vibrant among many combat veterans of World War II is still very much alive with the members of Covered Bridge Post No. 536, Jewish War Veterans, according to the post’s commander, William Epstein, 89.

Every month for the last five years a contingent from the post, many of whom are World War II veterans, and some of whom fought in Korea and Vietnam, have traveled to the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park, Edison, to help cheer up veterans who are confined to that facility.

Many of the residents who live at the home fought in World War II.

A van carrying 10 or 12 of the Covered Bridge JWV members travels to the Menlo Park facility on the third Monday of every month.

“Many of the veterans there are in wheelchairs,” Epstein said. “We hope that we are making a difference in their lives. It is really an enjoyable event for us. We are able to walk out of there on our own two feet. The residents there are not able to (do that), but we hope we are able to make their lives a little better.”

The Covered Bridge JWV recently received a boost in its efforts to aid the disabled veterans.

Marlboro resident Andrea Mesh, the executive director of Project Support Our Soldiers (SOS), recently contributed $500 to help support the Covered Bridge group in their monthly efforts at Menlo Park. Epstein said the donation was made in recognition of the group’s work at the veterans home.

The $500 was scheduled to be turned over to the directors of the Menlo Park facility when the Covered Bridge JWV contingent traveled there on July 18, Epstein said.

“The post added $500 of its own to that amount,” he said. “The money will be used to supply a wish list of items for the disabled veterans at the home. This could include a number of items they might want, from radios to shavers.”

Mesh has been involved in a number of projects in recent years to send supplies to local soldiers who are serving in Iraq and to provide assistance to the families of those soldiers.

“I felt I did what I could to make a difference for our soldiers and Marines,” Mesh said in an April 2004 article in the News Transcript. “I think we are all responsible for each other. We should thank our troops for the freedom they have provided us with.”

During their monthly visit to the Menlo Park facility, the JWV members treat between 55 and 70 residents to an afternoon of comradeship, which includes coffee and cookies, while enjoying a game of bingo, Epstein said.

Epstein, a retired accountant and a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., has lived in Covered Bridge for 28 years.

The Menlo Park endeavor is not the first time Epstein has engaged in efforts to help disabled veterans.

“When I was junior vice commander of the JWV, starting in 1981, we carried on a similar effort at the veterans hospital in Lyons,” Epstein said. “We did that for almost 20 years.”

Epstein recalled his own service with the U.S. Army in World War II.

“I served three years, one month and 16 days,” he said. “I was a member of the army’s military police. My first assignment was being sent to North Africa near the end of that campaign. Our job was to escort German prisoners of war, members of Field Marshal (Erwin) Rommel’s Africa Corps, back to the U.S. for confinement.”