These days, those people still alive who fought in WWII is shrinking. According to U.S. Veterans Administration estimates, in the next 15 years the country will lose nearly all of its 16 million WWII veterans — many of whom are already some 80 years and older.

Alexander “Allie” Massaro was Chief of the Sloatsburg Volunteer Fire Department from 1956 to 1958. Massaro was a 68 year member of the department and passed away in June 2016.

At the end of June, Sloatsburg lost another of its few remaining WWII veterans with the passing of Alexander “Allie” Massaro, who was born in Sloatsburg back in October 1926. Massaro had the distinction of being the most senior member of the Sloatsburg Volunteer Fire Department, having joined in 1948 soon after returning from military service in the United States Navy.

Massaro received a funeral mass at St. Joan of Arc Church in Sloatsburg on July 6.

His died the same month as highly decorated Sloatsburg WWII veteran, George Heller, who passed away in early June. Both men participated in the Hudson Valley Honor Flight program in recent years, which has focused on celebrating WWII veterans and involved a sightseeing trip to Washington, D.C.

According to a remembrance by Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright, Massaro entered the Navy at 18 and was assigned to the Pacific Theater. He participated in some of the country’s biggest navel battles of WWII, including the  Invasion of Okinawa — the series of battles in the Japanese islands was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific during WWII. 

Massaro also fought Sloatsburg’s “great mill fire in 1955” and, according to Mayor Wright, was the last man to evacuate the roof before the whole thing collapsed.

Massaro was known as leader of men, a keen gardener and chef (at onetime even operating a diner). He was also an outstanding mason who did work for St. Joan of Arc Church in Sloatsburg and who helped many a fellow friend and neighbor during his many years in Sloatsburg.