National Guard Capt. Thomas Maguire presents the Purple Heart Medal certificate earned by her late father, to Bernice Bernhardt

NEW WINDSOR – It was very fitting that the late Sgt. Maurice Dower was awarded the Purple Heart Medal at the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor on Veterans’ Day.

The award was presented to Dower’s 90-year-old daughter, Bernice Bernhardt. She said her father would have been thrilled to have received the medal, which he earned when he was wounded in 1918 while serving in France during World War I. “He loved the Army,” she said.

Congresswoman Nan Hayworth participated in the ceremony and had words of praise for all veterans.

“What a marvelous place in which to confer this Purple Heart on the very soil that General Washington and his troops performed their service so that we established the great nation that Mr. Dower defended and our veterans defended,” she said.

Dower’s granddaughter, Barbara Biasotti, said she was reminded that her grandfather wanted to reenlist in World War I, but was told he was too old at the time. She is the wife of New Windsor Police Chief Michael Biasotti.