The Tamaqua 2019 Memorial Day Parade will be held at 10 a.m. Monday.

Franklin Pruett of Tamaqua and Norman Scheutrumpf, formerly of Hometown, have been named grand marshals of the parade.

Retired Petty Officer 1st Class Paul Corinchock will be the featured speaker for the Memorial Day service. The service, held at the Soldiers’ Circle in Odd Fellow’s Cemetery, will take place at 11 a.m. The color guard of C.H. Berry Post No. 173, Tamaqua American Legion will render honors.

Participants will include the Rev. Philip Sabas, Poppy Queen Emily Beltz, BPW Women of the Year award recipient Kaitlyn Bender, the Tamaqua American Legion C.H. Berry Post No. 173, the Tamaqua Area Raider Marching Band, the Tamaqua Area High School Student Council and the Canton Allentown No. 39 Patriarch’s Militant.

The parade will form in the last block of East Broad Street in the area of the former CVS and Maff Motors. Participants should arrive no later than 9:45 a.m.

Upon arrival, check in with one of the parade coordinators to find their designated location in the lineup.

The Tamaqua 151st annual Memorial Day service honors all deceased veterans. The brief service includes the reading of the names of Tamaqua area veterans who passed away since the previous Memorial Day observance, as well as patriotic selections by members of the high school band and a balloon release in memory of departed veterans.

Featured speaker

Corinchock was raised in Hometown and is a 1974 graduate of Tamaqua Area High School.

After a brief career in the railroad industry, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1983 and was trained as an aviation structural mechanic.

Corinchock served five years of active duty and another 17 years with the United States Naval Reserve. He was stationed at multiple locations throughout the United States including Alameda, California, on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson; Memphis, Tennessee; Moffett Federal Airfield in California; and Pennsylvania’s Naval Air Station Joint Base in Willow Grove.

He was also temporarily assigned to a six-month position as a cryptologist. In the course of his career, Corinchock traveled to Sicily, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines and the Azores. He has earned the Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, and the Good Conduct Award.

Since retiring in 2006, Corinchock has been active with numerous military support volunteer organizations. He is a member of the Schuylkill Carbon Marine Corps League, Detachment 626 and a volunteer for Toys for Tots.

Along with his wife, Liz, he participates in the Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery site for the Wreaths Across America program, which honors deceased veterans by placing wreaths at their gravesites.

In 2018, the couple traveled to the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mere, France with Wreaths Across America to assist with honoring the nine thousand United States soldiers who died in World War II.

Corinchock serves as Sergeant-at-Arms for the American Legion, C.H. Berry Post 173, in Tamaqua, and plays a leading role with its honor guard.

In 1983, he married Liz O’Malley, with whom he is very active at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center. The couple lives in Tamaqua and are the parents of Nicole Corinchock Lipinsky, who resides in Allentown with her husband, Neil.

Grand marshals

Franklin “Pete” Pruett was born in 1931 and is a native of Tamaqua. He graduated from Tamaqua High School in 1949 and worked at the No. 14 Colliery until he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1951.

During his military service, Pruett served in the European Theater attached to the gunnery department on the USS Leary.

After his discharge in 1954, he worked at the Atlas Powder Company and Remaly Manufacturing in Tamaqua from which he retired in 1991.

Pruett married the former Phyllis Bower in 1955. The couple has three children: Kerry Pruett of Tamaqua, Susan Fegley of Quakake, and Janis Keich of Tunkhannock; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

He is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Tamaqua and is a lifetime member of both the American Hose Co. and the American Legion C.H. Berry Post 173.

Norman Scheutrumpf was born in 1923, graduated from Tamaqua High School in 1942, and enlisted in the United States Army later that year. He was a machine-gunner and was later attached to a battalion that guarded POWs of the German Africa Corps.

Scheutrumpf was part of the invasion of Normandy as a sergeant with the 227 Medical Unit. His role as a surgical technician was to treat wounded soldiers and to open field hospitals along the path of the invasion.

Scheutrumpf was also in Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. Upon his discharge in 1946, he was employed by the Atlas Powder Co. for 40 years.

Scheutrumpf has been decorated with the American Campaign Medal, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the WWII Victory Medal.

In 1948, Scheutrumpf married Verna Cook who passed away in 1964. The couple had one daughter, Charlotte, who was born in 1952 and now lives in Arizona with her husband Ray Pryor.

In 1969, Scheutrumpf married Mabel Neifert. The couple lived for many years in Hometown but now reside in Drums.

Parade

The parade will be held rain or shine. In the event of rain, however, the Memorial Day service will be held at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center at 125 Pine St., Tamaqua.

If the service is relocated to the Community Arts Center, the announcement will be made as early as possible on the Facebook pages of Tamaqua Remembers and the Zizelmann-Gulla Funeral Home. The announcement will also be made on WMGH and tnonline.com.

Any organizations interested in participating in the parade can do so by contacting Dave Meredith at 570-668-3356.