A monument honoring the legendary Rainbow Division of World War I, located in Garden City (NY), is being rededicated on Veterans Day, November 11 th, 85 years after the end of what was then called The Great War.

A ceremony will be held featuring patriotic music from the period, posters, photos and other memorabilia donated by families of WWI veterans, readings of award-winning essays by Long Island Middle School students, and reminiscences of the period by family members of veterans.

Joining in the rededication are the American Legion’s William Bradford Turner Post in Garden City, the Rainbow Division Veterans Memorial Foundation, and the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation of Norfolk, Virginia. It was a young Douglas MacArthur, who, as an Army chief of staff, named the division because it represented the “rainbow” across America. More than 27,000 men from 26 states and the District of Columbia assembled and trained in Garden City. They lived in thousands of four-cot, floorless, one-pole tents at what was then Camp Albert Mills, before boarding trains at the Long Island Rail Road Station, which is now the Garden City firehouse, and eventually shipping out to France.

The New York contingent of the division, which was officially the 42 nd Infantry, included the fabled “Fighting 69 th” regiment, immortalized in a 1940 movie of that name starring James Cagney as a cynical New York tough guy who becomes a hero.

John Donovan, Commander of the American Legion Post in Garden City, said that the rededication gives Garden City residents and the rest of Long Island adults as well as young people “the chance to reflect on the very significant piece of history that occurred right in their own backyard.”

The 17-ft tall monument is made of Rainbow granite from Minnesota, and was erected in 1941. It weighs more than 30 tons. Each side of the base depicts a phase of Rainbow Division history in maps and words. The sides of the monument show a Doughboy at attention, a Doughboy blowing taps, and a list of all the units of the division and their states. A permanent red, yellow and blue rainbow is etched in the granite above the soldiers.

Approximately two out of every three Rainbow Division soldiers were either wounded or killed in the war. One of the slain was the famous American poet Joyce Kilmer, who wrote “Trees.” another was Congressional Medal of Honor winner William Bradford Turner, a Garden City resident after whom the American Legion post was named.

Event organizers are sponsoring an essay contest for Nassau County Middle School students, focusing on “The Legacy of World War I,” with a total of $450 in U.S. Savings Bond prizes to three winners. A student will read one of the winning essays at the event.

Contributing to the rededication are Boswell’s Deli, Garden City; Scheurer Monuments, Westbury; and Crown Trophy, Levittown.

The ceremony will take place from 9:30 a.m. to noon on November 11 th at Rainbow Division Plaza at the intersection of Clinton Road and Commercial Avenue in Garden City. Further information on the essay contest and the event is available from organizers George Haber at (516) 822-9756 or John Donovan at (516) 739-3565.